رئیس جمهوری افغانستان عازم اروپا شد -- BBC

محمد اشرف غنی، رئیس جمهوری افغانستان صبح امروز در راس یک هیات عالی رتبه دولتی برای اشتراک در کنفرانس لندن و نشست وزرای خارجه کشورهای عضو ناتو عازم اروپا شد.

براساس خبرنامه دفتر رئیس جمهوری افغانستان، آقای غنی و هیات همراهش امروز وارد شهر بروکسل، پایتخت بلژیک می‌شوند و آقای غنی در نشست وزرای خارجه ناتو سخنرانی خواهد کرد.

دفتر ریاست جمهوری افغانستان افزوده که آقای غنی فردا، سه‌شنبه برای سفر رسمی چهار روزه عازم لندن، پایتخت بریتانیا خواهد شد که در کنار اشتراک و سخنرانی در کنفرانس لندن، با دیوید کامرون، نخست وزیر، شهزاده چارلز، ولیعهد و مقامات کشورها و سازمان‌های بین المللی کمک کننده به افغانستان، دیدار و گفتگو خواهد کرد

در این خبرنامه آمده است که عبدالله عبدالله، رئیس اجرائی، عبدالرشید راشد، سرپرست دادگاه عالی، محمد حنیف اتمر، مشاور امنیت ملی، صلاح الدین ربانی، رئیس شورای عالی صلح و همچنین سرپرست های وزرای امور خارجه، مالیه، امور زنان و شماری از اعضای شورای ملی افغانستان رئیس جمهور افغانستان را در این سفر همراهی می‌کنند.

کنفرانس لندن قرار است که چهارم دسامبر برگزار شود. این کنفرانس که به میزبانی بریتانیا و افغانستان دایر می‌شود، قرار است که دولت وحدت ملی افغانستان دیدگاه و برنامه‌های خود را برای جامعه جهانی بیان کند.

در کنار آن جامعه جهانی نیز با توجه به برنامه‌های دولت وحدت ملی، کمک و حمایتهای خود برای افغانستان را اعلام خواهند کرد.  More

Afghan Fires His Cabinet; Police Chief Offers to Quit

KABUL, Afghanistan — Unable to form a new government, the new president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, settled for the next best thing on Sunday: He fired the old one.

As Mr. Ghani dismissed most of the ministers, another important Afghan official was on the verge of being ousted. The Kabul police chief offered his resignation amid an escalating pattern of Taliban suicide attacks in the capital.

Afghanistan’s recently inaugurated leaders — a president, a chief executive, and two vice presidents — have struggled to make basic decisions as the security situation has deteriorated here. The underlying problem, which various factions in the government point to, is the power-sharing agreement that followed this year’s disputed presidential election. It makes Mr. Ghani president and his election rival, Abdullah Abdullah, the chief executive.

Since the deal was struck in September, Mr. Ghani and Mr. Abdullah have been unable to agree on a new cabinet, leaving the government in the lurchand raising questions about the long-term chances of the power-sharing deal.

Lately, optimistic reports in the local news media have suggested that the two sides were close to a breakthrough in selecting a new cabinet. That optimism was dispelled Sunday night, when Mr. Ghani said in a televised address that the selection of a new cabinet was still a number of weeks away.

In the meantime, he said, he was dismissing most of the current ministers, all holdovers from the previous administration. Their deputy ministers would take charge, pending new appointments, he said.  Read More at NYTimes

Egypt’s President Won’t Pursue Action Against Mubarak

CAIRO — President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said on Sunday that he accepted the end of legal actions against the former president, Hosni Mubarak, declaring in a statement that Egypt must now “look to the future” and “cannot ever go back.”

His remarks, a day after a court dropped all remaining charges against Mr. Mubarak, indicated that Mr. Sisi would make no further attempts to hold Mr. Mubarak accountable for the corruption or human rights abuses that characterized his three decades in power. In his first response to Saturday’scourt decision, Mr. Sisi emphasized the importance of “full confidence in the fairness, integrity, impartiality and competence of Egypt’s judges.”

The president said he had directed his prime minister to review the government’s compensation to the families of the hundreds of demonstrators who were killed during the 2011 uprising against Mr. Mubarak. He also said that, following the recommendation of the court, he was asking a committee to review the procedural technicalities that the court had cited on Saturday when it dismissed murder charges against Mr. Mubarak that accused him of directing those killings.   Read More at NYTimes

Taliban Heat Up Battle in Kabul -- WSJ

KABUL—The Afghan capital has become the focus of a violent campaign by Taliban insurgents seeking to exploit the new government’s infighting and drive out the country’s foreign backers.

The past two weeks have seen a string of attacks on diplomatic and international targets in Kabul, including a deadly assault Saturday on a guest house belonging to a nongovernmental organization, Partnership in Academics and Development.

This past Thursday a suicide attack hit Wazir Akbar Khan, the heart of the diplomatic quarter, and a car bombing struck a British diplomatic convoy.

All told, the city has seen about a dozen bombings or attacks in about two weeks—a frequency much greater than usual.

“Our objective is to force the foreigners to flee Kabul,” said Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. “Before, the foreigners were visible in the provinces.…Now that they have limited more of their activities to Kabul, we have also gone to Kabul to target them there.”

The U.S. had around 100,000 troops on the ground in Afghanistan at the height of a surge in 2011, but the White House now plans to keep just under 10,000 to oversee the training of the Afghan military and to conduct counterterrorism missions once the coalition’s mandate expires on Dec. 31.

The Afghan parliament last week ratified a bilateral security agreement between Kabul and Washington that will allow for the continued international military presence.

The surge in violence prompted the resignation on Sunday of Kabul’s chief of police, Gen. Zahir Zahir, shortly after a news conference where he raised the death toll from Saturday’s attack. In addition to an Afghan employee, the head of the NGO and his two children—all South African citizens—were also killed, Gen. Zahir said.

While the Afghan capital has been rocked by occasional high-profile attacks against government officials and international installations in recent years, the war in Afghanistan has largely been waged in the countryside, particularly in the rural south and east.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani heads to Brussels and London this week to court world support for his country. Afghan and international officials say he will unveil at an international conference in London a program to reduce corruption, increase government revenue and raise official accountability.

At home, Afghans say paralysis at the top echelons of government has allowed the Taliban to press an offensive—both in Kabul and in the countryside.

Nazifullah Salarzai, Mr. Ghani’s spokesman, said the president and Mr. Abdullah have agreed on the principles for forming a cabinet. He said the nominees would be presented in groups for parliamentary approval soon.

“All the ministers will be new faces,” Mr. Salarzai said. “There will be four women in the new cabinet. And for those technical ministries, the ministers will be professional and their appointment will be based on meritocracy.”   Read More at Wall Street Journal

'Poorest president on earth' receives million-dollar offer for clapped-out VW Beetle

The “poorest president on earth” has received a million-dollar offer to buy his clapped-out old blue 1987 Volkswagen Beetle, which became a symbol of his modest lifestyle.

Uruguayan president Jose Mujica claimed in an interview with local weekly newspaper Busqueda that an Arab Sheikh offered him $1 million for the vintage car during the G77 summit in Bolivia in June.

“That’s what they said to me,” Mr Mujica said when asked about the offer at a press conference. “But I didn’t give it any importance.”

The 79-year-old president, a former leftist Tupamaro guerrilla leader who was shot by police six times and spent 14 years in a military prison, said if he received the million-dollar offer he would give it all away – either to a homeless charity that he has long supported or to the local public health service in the form of trucks.

Although the president confessed he felt “no commitment” to the car, claiming he had only kept it for so long because of his three-legged dog Manuela, he said he understood why others might wish to buy it. 

When Mr Mujica came to power in 2010 he famously declared the car was the sum total of his worldly wealth. He continues to donate 20 per cent of total monthly income to his political movement, alongside the remainder of his income to various charities that he supports.  Read More at independent

Kabul police chief quits after attack that group says killed three staff

(Reuters) - The police chief of Afghanistan's capital quit on Sunday, his spokesman said, following a third deadly Taliban attack in 10 days on foreign guest houses in Kabul.

Also on Sunday, the charity whose guest house was targeted in the latest attack said three of its aid workers were killed by insurgents who used guns and explosives. Earlier, Kabul police said one foreigner and other Afghan died.

The statement on the website of the U.S.-based Partnership in Academics and Development (PAD) did not give the nationalities of the three. A Western security official said they were South Africans.

Meanwhile, Kabul's police spokesman declined to comment on the reason for the chief's resignation.

"We can only confirm... he will not continue his job as police chief anymore," Hashmat Stanekzai said.

The Taliban and its militant allies have increased pressure on Kabul, which has seen a spike in deadly attacks on military and civilian targets.

Over the past 10 days, three compounds used by foreign organizations have been hit by armed attackers. In separate attacks in Kabul, two American soldiers, two British embassy workers and dozens of Afghan civilians have died.

The Taliban said on Saturday it had attacked the foreign guesthouse because it was a center of Christian faith. This was the second time this year the Taliban targeted a group that it said had links to Christianity.

PAD, which supports education in Afghanistan, said it would continue its activities despite the attack.   The group could not be reached immediately for comment.  More

رحيم جهانی، آوازخوان پر آوازه افغانستان درگذشت - رادیو آزادی

رحيم جهانی، آوازخوان پر آوازه افغانستان در امریکا درگذشت. رحیم جهانی در سن ده سالگی به موسیقی روآورده بود. اولین آهنگ او با عنوان "بیایید بیایید به میدان خرابات" از طریق رادیو افغانستان پخش شده بود.

جلال نورانی، مشاور وزارت اطلاعات و فرهنگ افغانستان خبر درگذشت رحیم جهانی را در صحبت با رادیو آزادی تایید کرد. آقای نورانی درگذشت او را یک ضایعه بزرگ به موسیقی افغانستان خوانده است.

Pope Francis Urges Respect for Religious Freedom on Trip To Turkey - WSJ

ANKARA, Turkey— Pope Francis demanded respect for religious freedom during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, a call that will resonate particularly with Christians who say they suffer discrimination in a country where Islam has reasserted itself in the public sphere.

At the start of a three-day visit to Turkey, the pope also reaffirmed his belief in dialogue between religions, saying it could be a key part of bringing peace to the region. Relations between Christian and Muslims have come under strain in recent months amid violence against Christians by Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq, with some critics saying Islamic leaders haven’t denounced the atrocities strongly enough.

“It is essential that all citizens—Muslim, Jewish and Christian—both in the provision and practice of the law, enjoy the same rights and respect the same duties,” the pope said. “Interreligious and intercultural dialogue can make an important contribution to [peace], so that there will be an end to all forms of fundamentalism and terrorism.”

Pope Francis’ outreach to Islam during his 20-month papacy has earned him praise by Muslim leaders. In making his comments, the pope walked a fine line between extending a hand to Muslim leaders and prodding them to do more to guarantee the rights of non-Muslim minorities, at home and across borders.

Mr. Erdogan, a pious Muslim who has scaled back the rigid secularism that long reigned in Turkey, held up the country’s Islamic-infused democracy as a model for reconciliation in a region torn by sectarian strife. But the country’s small Christian population argues its rights are being trampled.

Mr. Erdogan welcomed the pope’s call for religious tolerance while pointing out that Islamophobia was on the rise. He underlined the issue of “increasing prejudice and intolerance against Muslims.”  Read More at Wall Street Journal

Pope Francis prays in Istanbul's Blue Mosque

(Reuters) - Pope Francis prayed silently alongside a senior Islamic cleric in Istanbul's Blue Mosque on Saturday, in a gesture of inter-religious harmony in a country bordering the conflicts inSyria and Iraq.

Francis took off his shoes as he entered the huge mosque, before bowing his head in prayer for several minutes, facing Mecca and standing next to Istanbul's Grand Mufti Rahmi Yaran, in what a Vatican spokesman described as a joint "moment of silent adoration" of God.   Read More

Two killed in Taliban raid in Kabul, Camp Bastion under fire

(Reuters) - Afghan security forces overcame Taliban insurgents attacking a guest house for international aid workers in Afghanistan's capital on Saturday and were still fighting gunmen inside former U.S. and British base Camp Bastion.

Foreign troops left the camp in the south of Afghanistan just a few weeks ago.

At least two civilians were killed in the second attack in three days on expatriate aid workers' housing in Kabul. One Taliban fighter was killed when his suicide vest exploded and the other two attackers were shot, Qadam Shah Shaheem, commander of the Afghan army's 111 Military Corps Kabul, said.

Eight people, including two foreigners, were rescued from the building in Kabul's western Karte Seh district during the four-hour gunbattle.

Two bodies were found on the lower floors, but their identities were not known, Shaheem said.
Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai said in a statement that one was Afghan and one was a foreigner, but he did not give the nationality.

The Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility, with a spokesman saying in a statement that their fighters had targeted a Christian organization seeking to convert Muslims. Authorities did not know the name of the aid organization.

On Thursday, Taliban gunmen had stormed a guest house in Kabul's diplomatic quarter. Only the attackers were killed.  Read More

Oil down, stocks mixed as Japan slips into recession

(Reuters) - Oil prices fell and global equity markets were mixed on Monday after news that Japan unexpectedly slipped into recession in the third quarter renewed concerns about world growth.

But two blockbuster acquisitions and anticipation of more European stimulus capped declines and helped lift the S&P 500 to a record closing high on Wall Street.

The Japanese yen steadied against the U.S. dollar, pulling back from a fresh seven-year low, as the economic data set the stage for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to delay an unpopular sales tax hike and call an election two years before he has to.

Japan's economy shrank an annualized 1.6 percent after a 7.3 percent slide in the second quarter, when a sales tax hike hit consumer spending. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected 2.1 percent growth in the third quarter, but consumption and exports remained weak, saddling companies with big inventories.

Tokyo's Nikkei index lost 3 percent, its biggest one-day drop since August, and Wall Street closed mixed after a choppy session. Brent oil initially fell more than $1 toward $78 a barrel as Japan is the world's No. 4 crude importer.  Read More

Press Releases 2014 | Embassy of the United States Kabul, Afghanistan

Press Releases 2014 | Embassy of the United States Kabul, Afghanistan

Ambassador James B. Cunningham’s Remarks at Official Farewell Reception

For more than three and a half years it has been my privilege to serve the United States in Afghanistan, and to help strengthen the partnership between our two countries and our two peoples.  For Leslie and me, this has been the experience of a lifetime.  We prepare to depart with a bittersweet feeling of sadness and optimism – and an enduring respect for this country and the many remarkable Afghans who are building its future.

When I arrived here in the summer of 2011, the ISAF forces had reached their peak.  We were headed for Transition by the end of 2014, but did not have a real plan.  The Strategic Partnership was still a concept, the commitments to Afghanistan at the Chicago NATO Summit and at Tokyo were unformed ideas.  We had not yet conceived of the Bilateral Security Agreement.  But the United States and our partners were committed to forge with Afghanistan an international structure to provide enduring support, allow Afghanistan to assume responsibility for the security of its people, and lay a foundation on which Afghans could build.   That has now been accomplished.

No one should underestimate what Afghanistan has achieved in the past decade.  In terms of history, this is a blink of the eye.  Afghanistan is on the threshold of a future in which Afghans can seek peace and prosperity and a better life.

Afghan democracy has struggled, as all young democracies do, and even as much more mature democracies do.  But Afghanistan has achieved the first peaceful transfer of political authority to a new President, and President Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah are forming the government of national unity which will provide the best possibility for success in the years ahead.  This will not be easy, as the past has not been.  But this is surely a time of promise and opportunity for Afghanistan that is historically unique.  I hope that the Afghan people will seize this opportunity.

I hope that Afghans will demand of themselves and their leaders the commitment, responsibility, and respect for others that will permit peaceful political competition and accommodation.  That they will build the broad cultural, religious and political space required to bring together all Afghans, wherever they are and of all beliefs, in a national project which rejects violence and terror, fights for peace, respects human rights and the rights of women, and is committed to the framework of Afghan law and the Afghan constitution.  A diverse society can nurture national unity.

I hope Afghans will not lose confidence in democracy.  Whatever else happened in the last election, it is without doubt that millions and millions of courageous and committed Afghans, men and women, cast their ballots, and at personal risk.  This is a remarkable phenomenon under any circumstance.  Afghans should be proud of that achievement, and demand better in the future, as the unity government is committed to provide.

Leslie and I long to return here and to travel freely in a peaceful Afghanistan.  The Afghan security forces are brave fighters.  They are capable, effective and with international support will only get better.  The Taliban must come to see not only that terror will not return them to power; they must see that their time, whether they have watches or not, is past.  The wheel of history has turned.  The empty vision of the Taliban, a vision without hope, which glorifies the murder of innocents, which attacks children at sporting events, surely cannot meet the aspirations of the Afghan people.   

In closing, I want to do two things.  Read More at  Kabul. US Embassy

A Call to Save a 12th-Century Minaret, Heard Far and Wide

JAM, Afghanistan — It is the place that launched a thousand postcards, back in the day when tourists still came in any numbers to Afghanistan: the Minaret of Jam.

Even then, few ever actually saw it, tucked into a gorge 12 hours of rough jeep track from anywhere, in a part of the country notorious for its brigandry, Ghor Province in the west-central highlands.

Now, that road passes through Taliban territory as well, and reaching it has become even harder. The track ends at Jam, and in spring and summer the river is too high to cross to the side where the minaret is.

Officials from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization were finally able to revisit the site on Nov. 18, for the first time since 2006. President Ashraf Ghani ordered his military to take a team of experts and check out reports that the minaret, completed more than a century before the similarly Leaning Tower of Pisa, was tilting more perilously than ever.

“I think it’s the very first historical monument of Afghanistan, with an importance far beyond the borders of Afghanistan,” said Tarcis Stevens, a Belgian conservation architect on assignment for Unesco who dropped everything on a few days’ notice and headed to visit the minaret last week. “It’s 800 years old and still looks like it was built yesterday.”

Except, that is, for that tilt, which a recent Afghan report warned was so serious that the minaret was in imminent danger of collapse. Mr. Stevens brought in laser instruments to see how much it had moved since 2006 and 2002, his two previous visits.

The minaret, dating from 1194, is an architectural wonder.

It is built entirely from brick, the second-tallest such tower in the world, and covered in elaborate geometric raised-relief designs and turquoise ceramic inscriptions. From the outside, it appears to have the structure of a telescope, its four staged columns tucked inside one another and rising to 213 feet.

Inside is another wonder: a pair of entwined staircases forming a double helix, similar to that of a DNA molecule. It is a design that predated similar constructions in European towers during the Renaissance, hundreds of years later.

The Minaret of Jam is one of only two Unesco World Heritage sites in Afghanistan. The other is the Bamian Valley, famed for the giant Buddha statues that were largely destroyed by the Taliban.

By some accounts, the minaret was lost to history until a British aircraft flew over the gorge in the late 1950s and saw the long shadow it cast. Now, preservationists say that allowing its fall would be a cultural catastrophe.

Jam is the only major monument remaining from the civilization of the Ghurids, which ruled a 12th-century empire stretching from Iran to Bengal, with its capital in the rugged mountains of Ghor: then, as today, one of Afghanistan’s least accessible places.  Read More at NYTimes

Pope's first day in Istanbul boosts hopes of 'unification'

Like his predecessor, Pope Francis "prayed" at the Blue Mosque, which was his first stop in Istanbul on Nov. 29 in the second leg of a richly symbolic three-day visit to Turkey, before boosting hopes of those who support the unification of the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.

The pope was welcomed by Turkish authorities and GreekOrthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I at Atatürk Airport at 10.29 a.m. on Nov 29. “Your Holiness, beloved brother in Christ, we welcome you with great joy, esteem and love. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” said Bartholomew I on greeting the pope.

Pope Francis first went to the Sultan Ahmet mosque, known as the Blue Mosque, one of the greatest masterpieces of Ottoman architecture.

When his predecessor Benedict XVI visited the mosque in 2006, he assumed the Muslim attitude of prayer and turned toward Mecca in what many saw as a stunning gesture of reconciliation. The Vatican later made clear he had not actually prayed in the mosque but was "in meditation."

After Rahmi Yaran, the mufti of Istanbul, briefed him on the history of the mosque and quoted the Quranic verses about the life of Mother Mary, Pope Francis asked if he could pray in a gesture reminiscent of his predecessor. The two religious figures then prayed together, facing Mecca, in what a Vatican spokesman described as a joint "moment of silent adoration" of God.

"We need prayers so much," Yaran told the pope, before presenting him an İznik tile, like the ones decorating the Blue Mosque, bearing an image of tulip, an important symbol for Turks and Muslims.

The pope surprised the journalists who were waiting for him in front of the Blue Mosque by arriving with a civilian car that did not carry a license plate. Earlier, it was reported that Turkish authorities had refused the pope's request for "a humble car" on the grounds of security.

A group of school children waving Turkish and Vatican flags chanted "Long live Pope Francis" in Italian as the Muslim call to prayer rang out across Sultanahmet Square, the heart of Istanbul's historic quarter.

"We must show respect for each others beliefs. God willing the pope's visit will help in this respect," said Halil Ibrahim Cil, 24, a hospital worker from Istanbul. "We want to practice our religion in peace. We want people to understand Islam. We don't want war." 

Next stops: Hagia Sophia, two churches, Patriarchate:  The pontiff then went to the nearby Hagia Sophia Museum, originally built as an EasternOrthodox cathedral in the sixth century before being converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453.  Read More at hurriyetdailynews

پاپ: مذاکره میان ادیان میتواند افراطیت را ادر جهان از بین ببرد - رادیو آزادی

رهبر کاتولیک های جهان می گوید، مذاکره میان ادیان می تواند باعث از بین بردن افراطیت از جهان شود. پاپ فرانسیس دیروز طی یک سفر سه روزه وارد ترکیه شد و در نخستین سخنرانی که در قصر ریاست جمهوری آن کشور در حضور رجب طیب اردوغان داشت، گروه تندرو دولت اسلامی را محکوم کرد. پاپ فرانسیس گفت، با تعصب و بنیادگرائی و نیز هراس افگنی های بی منطق که به سوء تفاهم و تبعیض دامن می زند، باید با همبستگی تمام معتقدان برخورد شود. وی هم چنان افزود، نیاز به حاصل کردن اطمینان است که تمام مسلمانان، یهودیان و عیسویان از حقوق یکسان برخوردار بوده و احترام شوند.

پاپ فرانسیس اقدامات ترکیه در پناه دادن به حدود یک میلیون و 600 هزار پناه جوی جنگ داخلی سوریه را ستود و گفت، جامعه بین المللی از نظر اخلاقی متعهد است تا برای تامین نیاز های پناه جویان با ترکیه کمک کند. سفر پاپ به ترکیه در یک زمانی صورت می گیرد که گروه دولت اسلامی برخی مناطق را در عراق و سوریه در آن سوی سرحدات ترکیه تصرف کرده است.

ترکیه سومین کشور اسلامی است که رهبر کاتولیک های جهان به آن سفر کرده است. وی پیش از این از اردن و البانیا دیدن کرده بود. قرار است پاپ فرانسیس در جریان بازدید اش از ترکیه در کلیسای بزرگ هاگیا سوفیا در استانبول دعا کند. این کلیسا برای نُه صد سال عبادتگاهء عیسویان و سپس برای پنج صد سال دیگر مسجد جامع مسلمانان و در حال حاضر یک موزیم رسمی ترکیه است.  More

Egyptian Judges Drop All Charges Against Mubarak

CAIRO — An Egyptian court dropped all remaining charges against former President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday, raising the possibility that he could go free for the first time since being removed from office in the 2011 uprising that defined the Arab Spring revolt.

The court dismissed murder charges against Mr. Mubarak and his widely reviled security chief in the killing of protesters challenging his rule — charges that once inspired crowds to hang the former president’s effigy from the lampposts of Tahrir Square in Cairo and captivated the region.

The court also acquitted the former president on corruption charges, along with his sons and a wealthy business associate, figures who had come to personify the rampant self-dealing of Mr. Mubarak’s 30-year-rule as much as the president himself.

Coming five months after the inauguration of a new military-backed strongman, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, the decision amounted to the most sweeping repudiation yet of the claims of the Jan. 25, 2011, uprising that forced Mr. Mubarak from power with calls for democratic and accountable government.

“Today’s verdict indicates a very deliberate decision by the regime to continue on the path of rewriting the history that led to Mubarak’s ouster and closing the file on the Jan. 25 revolution,” said Hossam Bahgat, a journalist and human rights advocate who cheered on that revolt.

Mr. Mubarak, 86, who has been held at a military hospital because of frail health, appeared in court on a stretcher in sunglasses, a blue necktie and sweater. He remained stone-faced as the chief judge, Mahmoud Kamel al-Rashidi, read the verdict, and only at the end did he allow himself a smile as his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, hugged and kissed him in celebration.

A short time later, Mr. Mubarak was photographed waving to admirers from a hospital balcony, and in a telephone interview with a supportive, pro-government talk show host the former president scoffed at an earlier court verdict that had been handed down against him. “I laughed when I heard the first verdict,” he said, and suggested that some conspiracy had been behind the 2011 uprising.

“They turned on us,” he said, and when asked if he meant “the Americans,” he replied that he could not explain over the phone. “I can’t tell you if it’s the Americans or who.”  Read More at NYTimes

Egypt: Ex-ruler Hosni Mubarak, accused in deaths of hundreds, cleared of charges

Cairo (CNN) -- Egypt's former longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak was cleared of charges in a retrial Saturday and could soon be released -- a stunning reversal for a man who faced life imprisonment or worse after a revolution toppled him in 2011.

A Cairo judge dismissed charges linking Mubarak to the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 revolt and found him not guilty of corruption.

Mubarak, who ruled Egypt as president for 29 years, was stoic as his supporters in the courtroom cheered the decision that capped a monthslong retrial. The 86-year-old, reclining on a hospital gurney in a defendants' cage, nodded while fellow defendants kissed him on the head.

Later, he told the country's Sada ElBalad TV station in a brief phone interview that he "didn't commit anything."

"I laughed when I heard the first verdict," he said of the first trial. "When it came to the second verdict, I said I was waiting. It would go either way. It wouldn't have made a difference to me either way."

Mubarak was convicted in 2012 of issuing orders to kill peaceful protesters during the country's 2011 uprising and was sentenced to life in prison. He appealed and was granted a new trial last year.

Also acquitted Saturday were Mubarak's former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly and six of el-Adly's aides, who'd been accused of being connected to the deaths of 239 protesters as security forces cracked down on them in 2011. Mubarak's two sons also were acquitted Saturday of corruption.

Mubarak still has a three-year sentence for a previous conviction for embezzlement, but it wasn't immediately clear how much time he's already been credited with, and therefore when he will be free.

Prosecutors have the option of appealing Saturday's decision.

Both sides have alleged that Mubarak's trials have been politicized, with supporters arguing he was unfairly vilified and opponents fearing that he'd be acquitted as memories of the revolution faded.   Read More

Afghanistan: what will happen when the troops – and their dollars – depart?

It would be a challenge for any leader: balance the books after years of systemic corruption, battle a resurgent rebellion and form a government despite entrenched ethnic divisions. But Afghan’s new president, Ashraf Ghani, must do all this as thousands of foreign troops pull out, taking their services, experience, hardware and dollars with them.

Ghani’s most pressing task at a summit with international donors in London on 3-4 December may be to make sure the world does not forget Afghanistan once foreign soldiers are no longer fighting on its soil.

Nato troops are due to withdraw from Afghanistan by 31 December. From a peak of around 140,000 in 2011, the force will shrink to 12,000 soldiers, who will stay mainly to train Afghan security forces.

The withdrawal leaves Afghanistan more vulnerable to Taliban insurgents, who have been gaining ground this year, and deprives the economy of the benefits of having tens of thousands of foreign troops stationed in the 

“The Afghan economy is a war bubble and we are seeing it slowly deflate,” says Graeme Smith, senior analyst at International Crisis Group. He says the budget deficit was $300m-750m, with security costs eating up around $650m of the government’s meagre funds.

“If the Afghans were not paying that … to fight the war which, to be frank, we started, then most of these budgetary pressures would disappear overnight,” he says. “While we’re putting Afghanistan through these shocking political and military transitions, it behoves us to try to ease the economic transition, to smooth the way with some cash.”

However, many international partners are disillusioned after 13 years of rampant administrative corruption. Although Ghani represents a new start after Hamid Karzai’s discredited presidency, it is not clear yet whether this will be enough to guarantee continued, long-term financial support.

At the London conference, Afghanistan and its international partners are meant to review progress against the 2012 Tokyo mutual accountability framework, which includes commitments on governance, democracy, finance and rights.  Read More at Guardian

د کامې ځناورو چې سړی وداړي بیا نه جوړيږي -- افغان ځواک

 د ننګرهار کامې ولسوالۍ کې ګڼ شمېر اوسیدونکي د یوشمېر ماتوونکو ځناورو له زیاتوالی اندېښنه څرګندوي او وايي تر دا مهاله يې د دوی سیمه کې ۱۵ تنو ته مرګ ژوبله اړولې ده.

دوی وايي له تېرو شاوخوا دوه اونیو راهېسې يې په ولسوالۍ کې لیوه ته ورته سلګونه ځناور پيدا شوي، چې په رڼا ورځ خلک خوري او درملنه يې هم بیا امکان نه لري.

د کامې ولسوالۍ ځاې اوسیدونکي یادو ځناورو انديښمن کړي او وايي چې د کامې په بیلابیلو سیمو کې يې یو شمېر خلک خوړلي دي. دوی وايي تر دامهاله يې په ټوله ولسوالۍ کې شاوخوا پنځلس تنه خوړلي چې په دوی کې څلور تنو خپل ژوند له لاسه ورکړی او پاتې نورټپیان دي .

د کامې ولسوالۍ لسګونه ورته اولسي وګړي یاد مشکل ته کړیږي او له مسؤولو چارواکو يې د حل جدي غوښتنه کوي.

د کامې ولسوالۍ کندو کلي اوسیدونکی عبدالخالق وايي څه موده وړاندې يې میرمن لیوه ته ورته ځناور وخوړه، چې په خبره يې د درملنې لپاره يې ګاونډې هیواد پاکستان ته انتقال کړه او بلا اخره هلته يې ساه ورکړه.

هڅه مو وکړه چې په همد ي تړاو د ننګرهار د عامې روغتیا مسؤولینو نظر ترلاسه کړو خو لاس بری نه شو.

کامه په ننګرهار کې یوه هغه کرنیزه ولسوالي ده، چې ډېر خلک يې په کرکیله بوخت دي. 

کتوونکي وايي، د کامې ولسوالۍ اوسیدونکي سوله خوښونکي دي چي له همدې امله يې امنیت د ټول ننګرهار په کچه ښه اټکل کیږي.

As it happened: Pope Francis in first day of historic visit to Turkey - hurriyetdailynews

Pope Francis has arrived in Turkey for a three-day visit that many are billing as an opportunity to increase dialogue between the Muslim and Christian worlds at a time of increased religious tension.

In the fourth ever visit of a pope to Turkey, Pope Francis started his trip on Nov. 28 by visiting Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. In line with his taboo-breaking style, the pontiff made a series of unscheduled stops at the final resting place of the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

During the joint conference with Erdoğan, Pope said he hopes Turkey can be a "great peacemaker," while warning against "fanaticism and fundamentalism." Turkish President Erdoğan, meanwhile, expressed disillusionment about the international response to the massacres in Syria and the coup in Egypt. Pope Francis had hosted Egyptian President Abdulfattah al-Sisi only four days ago in Vatican.  Read More

Muslims found Americas before Columbus says Turkey's Erdogan

Muslims discovered the Americas more than three centuries before Christopher Columbus, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

He made the claim during a conference of Latin American Muslim leaders in Istanbul, pointing to a diary entry in which Columbus mentioned a mosque on a hill in Cuba.

He said he was willing to build a mosque at the site Columbus identified.   Mr Erdogan also said "Muslim sailors arrived in America in 1178". 

 The Turkish president - whose AK Party is rooted in political Islam - gave no further evidence to back up his theory, instead stating: "Contacts between Latin America and Islam date back to the 12th Century."   Read More at BBCNews

Muslims discovered America before Columbus, claims Turkey’s Erdogan

In a televised speech in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that Muslims had discovered the Americas three centuries before the voyages of Christopher Columbus. He was addressing a summit of Muslim leaders from Latin America.

"Contacts between Latin America and Islam date back to the 12th century. Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus," Erdogan said. "Muslim sailors arrived in America from 1178. Columbus mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast."

Erdogan is not shy of making provocative statements, whether it's about his political rivals, ethnic minorities or social media Web sites. His latest remarks are, in comparison, less incendiary.

They echo the research of a small coterie of scholars who believe there's archaeological and documentary evidence of Muslims in pre-Columbian America. Erdogan is apparently citing the disputed work of Youssef Mroueh, an academic affiliated with the As-Sunnah Foundation of America.

In a 1996 paper, Mroueh referred to the presence of a mosque spotted by Columbus along the Cuban coast. "Columbus admitted in his papers that on Monday, October 21, 1492 CE while his ship was sailing near Gibara on the north-east coast of Cuba, he saw a mosque on top of a beautiful mountain," writes Mroueh.

Most scholars insist the "mosque" mentioned was a metaphorical allusionto a striking land feature. There have been no archaeological discoveries of Islamic structures pre-dating Columbus's arrival in the New World.

Mroueh, who is not listed as a historian at any institution of higher learning, suggests that explorers from Muslim kingdoms in West Africa made the same journey across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands well before the Italian seafarer did in the employ of the Spanish Crown.

Others cite the work of a noted geographer in Muslim Spain, who produced a map in the 10th century that may show the outline of South America, and referenced the journey of an Arab sailor who traveled westward through an "ocean of darkness and fog."  Read More at Washington Post