W O R L D

Afghans mourn killing of peace broker Rabbani
Assassination could derail peace process, stir ethnic tensions
Thousands rally in Rabbani’s home province, vow revenge

Kabul, September 21 Afghans gathered to mourn assassinated former President and chief peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani today, World Peace Day, as fears mounted that his death could deepen ethnic divisions and nudge the country towards civil war. A supporter of Burhanuddin Rabbani holds a picture of him while standing outside his house in Kabul on Wednesday. — Reuters

Assassin waited days to see him
Kabul, September 21
The suicide bomber who assassinated former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani insisted on meeting face-to-face with the ex-president and waited in Kabul for days to talk with him about brokering peace with the Taliban, an associate of Rabbani’s said today.

Afghans mourn killing of peace broker Rabbani
Assassination could derail peace process, stir ethnic tensions
Thousands rally in Rabbani’s home province, vow revenge

Kabul, September 21
Afghans gathered to mourn assassinated former President and chief peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani today, World Peace Day, as fears mounted that his death could deepen ethnic divisions and nudge the country towards civil war.

Rabbani, perhaps the most prominent Afghan to be killed since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, died at his home on Tuesday when an insurgent he was due to hold talks with detonated explosives concealed in a turban.

The killing was a strong statement of Taliban opposition to peace talks and the latest in a string of high-profile assassinations to shake the confidence of ordinary Afghans that security can be maintained as foreign forces withdraw.

Rabbani was Afghanistan's most influential ethnic Tajik and his killing is likely to exacerbate ethnic divides, which could do more to damage peace efforts than the loss of a negotiator whose achievements were limited during his 11 months in charge.

"Our enemies must know, that with our Mujahideen, the soldiers of our martyred leader, we will take revenge on the blood-thirsty predators," said Atta Mohammad Noor, governor of northern Balkh province and a former Mujahideen commander loyal to Rabbani.

"Be sure that for every drop of his blood, thousands of soldiers and brave men will rise up and come to the battlefield against you," he said in video message from Mazar-i-Sharif. Several thousand people rallied in Faizabad, the capital of Rabbani's native Badakhshan province, and threatened revenge if the government failed to tackle the insurgents.

The crowd chanted "death to Pakistan, death to ISI", referring to the powerful spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which they blamed for Rabbani's killing. Many Afghans accuse Islamabad and the ISI of decades of interference in Afghan politics. Pakistan bristles at such comments and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua said Rabbani's death was a "huge loss for the process of reconciliation".

Several of Rabbani's aides said the bomber had been escorted through layers of security without checks, because of promises he brought a message from the Taliban leadership. — Reuters 

Assassin waited days to see him

Kabul, September 21
The suicide bomber who assassinated former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani insisted on meeting face-to-face with the ex-president and waited in Kabul for days to talk with him about brokering peace with the Taliban, an associate of Rabbani’s said today.

Mohammad Ismail Qasemyar, the international relations adviser for the peace council, said the bomber, identified as Esmatullah, had approached several council officials, telling them that he was an important figure in the Taliban insurgency and would only speak directly with Rabbani. “He wanted to talk about peace with Professor Rabbani,” Qasemyar said.

Qasemyar said the bomber stayed at a house used for guests of the peace council while waiting for Rabbani to return from a trip to Iran.

Yesterday, the two met and the attacker went to shake hands with Rabbani at his home, bowing his head near the former president’s chest and detonating a bomb hidden in his turban, Qasemyar said.

The US-led coalition said another attacker was also involved, but that could not be confirmed by Afghan officials. A Western official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the killing is still being investigated, said one person has been detained in connection with Rabbani’s death.

The assassination dashed hopes for reconciling with the Taliban and raised fears about deteriorating security in Afghanistan just as foreign combat troops are starting to pull out. — AP

Typhoon Roke smashes into Japan, four dead

Tokyo, September 21
A powerful typhoon smashed into Japan today and headed towards the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, where workers raced to secure buildings to stop radioactive material spreading.

Typhoon Roke, packing winds of up to 216 km per hour, made landfall near Hamamatsu, central Japan, and was moving northeast across the major island of Honshu.

The storm has already killed at least four persons and more than a million were initially warned to leave their homes over fears that torrential rains could cause widespread flooding.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled, ferry and rail services were suspended and roads closed as the country prepared for the impact of the storm.

Roke comes just six months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami laid waste to a vast area of Japan’s Pacific coast, sparking nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima.

It also comes less than a month after a vicious typhoon barrelled through Japan, killing 100 persons in the deadliest storm the country has seen for more than three decades.

Four people have so far been found dead in central and western Japan, while two people are missing in the central prefecture of Gifu, including a boy who disappeared on his way home from primary school. A tornado warning was temporarily raised across the Tokyo area, but expired a few hours after it was issued. — AFP

Assange’s memoir on stands today

London, September 21
The autobiography of Julian Assange is set to be published for the first time tomorrow despite attempts by the WikiLeaks founder to suppress his tell-all memoir after a bitter and acrimonious row with its publisher.

British publisher Canongate says the book, billed as an “Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography” will be for sale in stores and online tomorrow.

Last year Canongate paid Assange a large sum for the rights to the memoir and Assange began working with a ghostwriter on the book.

But the publisher said today Assange became increasingly troubled by the prospect, and declared that "all memoir is prostitution." Canongate says Assange tried to cancel his contract, but since he has not repaid his advance it is publishing the first draft that Assange delivered to the publisher in March.

The book provides a profoundly personal insight into a man who, in the space of less than a year, went from being a little-known former hacker to one of the world's most recognisable faces thanks to his organisation's string of deeply embarrassing revelations that have won him as many enemies as supporters.

The memoir paints a vivid portrait of a driven but notoriously mercurial idealist bent on moulding the world in his own belief of absolute transparency. It begins with the Australian's peripatetic childhood in Queensland accompanied by bohemian parents who always made him question authority, describes how he plunged into the hidden underworld of early hacking and went on to form a whistle-blowing platform that would redefine the nature of information security. — Agencies