10  theSun | FRIDAY OCTOBER 16 2009

news without borders

39 dead as militants
US plans new strategy ambush Pakistan police

for Afghanistan
WASHINGTON: President
Barack Obama held three
hours of talks with top advis-
ers on a new strategy for
Afghanistan on Wednesday,
with some aides emphasising
the main threat to US interests
is Al Qaeda, not the Taliban.
The administration’s
analysis of the threat posed by
the Taliban could play a role
in whether Obama accepts
part or all of US Army General
Stanley McChrystal’s request
for 40,000 or more extra US
troops for Afghanistan.
Some of Obama’s fellow
Democrats in the US Congress
oppose sending more troops,
while Republicans favour
deploying more and believe
Obama should go ahead and
make up his mind.
As US and Nato casualties
have soared, public support
for the eight-year-old war has
eroded.
In London, Britain said on
Wednesday it is ready to raise
troop numbers in Afghanistan
by 500 to 9,500.
Worsening violence in the
eight-year, US-led war against
the Taliban has led to calls for
a change of strategy including
the option of sending more
troops to bolster security.
More than 100,000 West-
ern troops are serving in
Afghanistan, of whom 65,000
are American.
Obama gathered in the
White House Situation Room
with Vice-President Joe Biden
and other senior aides for a
fifth session about Afghani-
stan with another scheduled
for next week, as the president
takes his time in deciding the
future US course there. A de-
cision could be weeks away,
officials say.
A dominant theme of
Wednesday’s talks was how
to speed up the training of Af-
ghanistan police and military
forces so they could provide
security for their country, as
well as bolster US civilian
efforts there, White House
spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
McChrystal’s proposed
increase – on top of the 65,000
US troops and 39,000 allied
forces now in Afghanistan
– and the broader strategy
review present Obama with
what may be the most difficult
decision of his presidency
thus far.
Gibbs made clear Obama
was not considering a reduc-
tion in US troop strength in
Afghanistan and that the only
options under consideration
were maintaining current
levels or increasing them.
He said the political situ-
ation was discussed as well.
Obama’s review has been
complicated by delays to the
outcome of the August presi-
dential election in Afghanistan,
held up by elaborate efforts to
wipe clean the widespread
fraud that marred the vote.
A White House official said
Obama was focused on the
complexity of the situation and
the need for a comprehensive
strategy with a security and
civilian component.
Administration officials
have made a point of stress-
ing in recent days that they do
not see the Taliban as a direct
threat to the United States on
a par with Al Qaeda, a view
that some analysts have taken
to mean that Obama might
not see the need for a sizable
troop buildup. – Reuters
LAHORE (Pakistan): Militants
unleashed coordinated attacks on
Pakistani police in which 39 people
died yesterday, storming offices in
Lahore and bombing a northwest sta-
tion to escalate 11 days of carnage.
The simultaneous assaults under-
scored the power of armed radicals
to strike in the heart of Pakistan and
the weakness of poorly equipped
security forces, despite promises of
a new offensive against the Taliban
near the Afghan border.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan, which
borders Afghanistan and is a key ally
in the US-led fight against terror, is
reeling from Taliban-linked attacks
in which more than 160 people have
died since Oct 5.
Minutes apart, between 9am and
10am, gunmen armed with suicide
vests and grenades stormed the
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)
branch in Lahore, plus a police
training school and a commando
Rewriting
history Report: Hunger levels still
pg 18
‘alarming’ in South Asia, Africa
DES MOINES (Iowa): The world
has made little progress in reducing
hunger since 1990, a new report
said on Wednesday, pointing to 29
countries with alarming levels of
malnutrition, mainly in Africa and
South Asia.
Those countries also are most
vulnerable to the impact of histori-
cally high food and energy prices, as
well as economic recession – factors
that the International Food Policy
Research Institute said are not yet
captured in the data used to compile
its annual hunger index.
“After decades of slow progress
in combating global hunger, the
number of malnourished people
is now rising as a result of recent
events,” said the report, published by
IFPRI, German aid group Welthun-
gerhilfe and Irish aid group Concern
academy on the city’s outskirts.
“They were very young – 19 to 20.
Three of them were clean shaven
and one had a small beard,” Dildar
Hussain, a 21-year-old police recruit,
told AFP from his hospital bed with
arm and collar bone fractures.
Five attackers, including at least
one teenager, scaled the back wall of
the commando academy and security
nerve centre at Bedian, on the city’s
outskirts, sparking a three-hour siege
before the army announced it was in
full control.
In the northwest town of Kohat
near Peshawar, police spokesman
Fazal Naeem said 11 people were
killed, including three policemen,
after a suicide bomber rammed a
van into the outer wall of a police
station.
Later on, a car bomb ripped
through a residential building for
government employees in Pesha-
war, killing a child. – AFP
Worldwide.
“The current situation of food
crisis, financial crunch and global
recession has further undermined
the food security and the livelihoods
of the poor,” the report said.
The groups use the report to
raise awareness of how government
policies affect hunger by ranking
countries. Past editions have been
closely studied by governments, said
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI’s director
general.
“That touches nerves of policy
markers and civil society organisa-
tions, and that is the intent,” von
Braun said. The report was released
at the World Food Prize forum,
where researchers, policy makers
and philanthropists are meeting
to discuss how best to tackle food
security. – Reuters

time-consuming physical seller this week at two major

briefs therapy, a palace official

‘Colossal quake to
hit Sumatra’
SINGAPORE: A colossal
earthquake may hit
Indonesia’s Sumatra island
within 30 years, triggering
a tsunami and making last
month’s deadly temblor
look tiny by comparison, a
geologist has warned.
Kerry Sieh, director of the
Earth Observatory of Singa-
pore, said the next big quake
would last more than six times
as long as the 7.6 magnitude
quake which struck western
Sumatra on Sept 30, levelling
the city of Padang.
“We expect it will be about
a magnitude 8.8, plus or minus
say 0.1,” Sieh, an American
professor, said on Wednesday.
He said last month’s Sumatra
quake lasted about 45 sec-
onds.
“This one’ll last about five
minutes,” Sieh said. – AFP
Thai king’s
health improving
BANGKOK: The health
of Thailand’s king is
improving but he needs
said yesterday after
concerns over his health
sparked a second day of
foreign selling in Thailand’s
financial markets. “His
Majesty’s condition is
improving and he does
not need further medical
treatment other than
physical therapy which
may take a long time,” said
the official in the Bureau of
the Royal Household.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej,
the world’s longest-
reigning monarch at age
81, has been in hospital
since Sept 19 when he was
admitted with fever. His
health has raised concern
among many Thais, who
regard him as semi-divine.
– Reuters
Jackson film
scores sellouts
LOS ANGELES: Advance
sales for This Is It look set to
make the concert movie star-
ring the late Michael Jackson
into one of the hottest tickets
of the year.
Two weeks ahead of its
opening, the singer’s concert
movie This Is It has generated
more than 1,600 sold out US
show times and is the top
online ticket outlets.
That puts This Is It in the
same territory as next month’s
highly anticipated Twilight
sequel New Moon and other
films that have generated high
pre-release sales.
This Is It is composed of
footage of the Thriller singer
rehearsing for a series of Lon-
don comeback concerts just
before his unexpected June
25 death, at age 50, from an
overdose of powerful medica-
tion. – Reuters
Jakarta: No more
maids for Kuwait
JAKARTA: Indonesia has indefi-
nitely suspended the traffic of
domestic helpers to Kuwait due
to concern over widespread
abuse and exploitation by their
employers, the labour ministry
said yesterday.
About 500 women with
complaints ranging from
physical beatings to the denial
of pay are sheltering at the
Indonesian embassy in the
oil-rich Gulf emirate, awaiting
assistance to be sent home,
ministry spokesman Budhi
Laksana said.
“The suspension will go on
indefinitely,” he said, adding
that there are around 60,000
Indonesian domestic helpers
in Kuwait. – AFP