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NATO ends Libya mission
Palestine becomes full member of UNESCO
Kyrgyz PM wins presidency
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US, UN offices hit in Kandahar
 Kandahar, October 31Suicide attackers today blew up a truck bomb and raided UN and US charity offices in Kandahar city, killing five Afghans in the latest major attack on American interests in Afghanistan. The ruins of the building used by the UNHCR that came under attack in Kandahar on Monday. — AFP
Graft: Tunisia issues arrest warrant for Arafat’s widow
Hindu temple in Pak reopens after 60 yrs Hindus celebrated Diwali at a historical 160-year-old temple at Peshawar in northwest Pakistan after it was reopened to the minority community after six decades on court’s orders.
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NATO ends Libya mission
Tripoli, October 31 In announcing the decision last week, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called it "one of the most successful" operations in the history of the 62-year-old alliance. The NATO chief made a surprise visit to Tripoli today, saying he foresaw no major role left for the alliance in Libya hours before its air mission was due to end officially. His visit comes seven months after Western powers fired the first barrage of missiles against Gaddafi forces in an air war that played a major role in ousting the veteran dictator. The no-fly zone and naval blockade, enforced by NATO since March 31, will end at midnight on Monday, as stipulated by a UN Security Council resolution last week that closed the mandate authorising military action. Rasmussen told AFP that he would hold talks in Tripoli with National Transitional Council (NTC) leaders, including chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil, "about their expectations as regards Libya's future and in particular their roadmap for transition to democracy." The other major theme he would raise with Libya's new leaders, he said, "will be their expectations as regards possible NATO assistance in the future." "Tonight at midnight Operation Unified Protector will end. But we have also clearly stated that if the new political leadership in Libya so requests, NATO stands ready to help them in their transformation to a democracy," Rasmussen said. For instance, he said, NATO could help could be given "when it comes to defence and security reform." "(But with) no NATO troops on the ground, I don't foresee a major NATO role. It's now for the United Nations to take the lead of the international assistance to the new authorities in Libya," the NATO secretary general said. "But NATO has some expertise, in particular within defense and security sector reform. ... So if Libya so requests, it would be quite natural to offer that expertise to the benefit of the Libyan people." The trip comes three days after NATO allies confirmed a decision to end the mission, declaring that the 28-nation alliance had fulfilled its UN mandate to protect civilians from a brutal repression. — Agencies NATO chief rules out no-fly zone over Syria NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen ruled out the possibility of a no-fly zone over Syria, in remarks to an AFP correspondent as he travelled on Monday to Tripoli to mark the end of the alliance's air war in Libya. "It's totally ruled out. We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria," Rasmussen said when asked if there was a possibility NATO would now spearhead a no-fly zone in Syria. "We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria," he insisted, saying the conditions there were different to those in Libya.
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Palestine becomes full member of UNESCO
Paris, October 31 "The general assembly decides to admit Palestine as a member of UNESCO," said the resolution that was adopted to loud applause by 107 countries, with 14 voting against and 52 abstaining. Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki, who was at UNESCO's Paris headquarters for the vote, hailed "a historic moment that gives Palestine back some of its rights," while Israel said the move damaged hopes for peace. "This is a unilateral Palestinian manoeuvre which will bring no change on the ground but further removes the possibility for a peace agreement," the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement. France, which had voiced serious doubts about the motion, approved it along with almost all Arab, African, Latin American and Asian nations, including China and India. Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany voted against, while Japan and Britain abstained. The United States and Israel are set now to withdraw their funding from the UN cultural body, while other UN agencies may have to debate the thorny issue. Washington has slammed the move as counterproductive and premature, while Israel's ambassador Nimrod Barkan admitted before the vote that he was resigned to the Palestinians gaining entry. Staunch Israel ally the United States in the 1990s banned the financing of any United Nations Organisation that accepts Palestine as a full member, meaning the body would lose $70 million, or 22 per cent of its annual budget. The Palestinians previously had observer status at UNESCO. — AFP
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Bishkek, October 31 Almazbek Atambayev, a close ally of outgoing President Roza Otunbayeva who took power after a 2010 uprising ousted the regime of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, won 63 per cent of the vote in yesterday’s polls, the central election commission said. The crushing victory over his two nationalist rivals, who garnered less than 15 per cent apiece, gave Atambayev the presidency without the need for a potentially tricky second round. Atambayev, 55, now faces the task of healing the wounds of a divided nation that within the space of a year in 2010 endured the bloody revolution that ousted Bakiyev and horrific inter-communal violence. The future of the nation is closely watched by the West, which uses Kyrgyzstan as a hub for transit operations for the campaign in Afghanistan. — AFP
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US, UN offices hit in Kandahar Kandahar, October 31 The bombers struck outside a compound housing offices of the UN and US-based International Relief and Development (IRD) in Kandahar, as Turkey gears up to host a major conference designed to quicken efforts to end the 10-year war. The bombing came two days after 17 people died in the deadliest attack yet in Kabul against the US-led NATO mission, including 10 Americans, and three days after a US-run base in Kandahar was targeted. One attacker detonated the vehicle outside the buildings, killing one unarmed watchman, before three others entered the joint compound, shooting dead three other guards, said provincial police chief Abdul Raziq. He said the attackers holed themselves up in a veterinary clinic and fired on security forces, also killing a local district police chief before they were themselves shot dead after more than six hours. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said the insurgent group carried out a car bomb attack in Kandahar-the Taliban’s former capital-claiming the UN refugee agency was the target. A Western diplomat said the target was still unclear. “At this point we are not sure if UNHCR in Kandahar or if the IRD compound was the target. They’re adjacent to one another,” he said. — AFP
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Graft: Tunisia issues arrest warrant for Arafat’s widow
Tunis, October 31 Justice ministry spokesman Kadhem Zine el Abidine told AFP that a Tunis court had issued the warrant against 48-year-old Suha Arafat, who was stripped of her Tunisian citizenship in 2007 and currently lives in Malta. He gave no reason for the move. — AFP
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Hindu temple in Pak reopens after 60 yrs Islamabad, October 31 Scores of Hindus, including women and children, visited the Goraknath temple at Gor Khatri, which was reopened after Phool Wati, the daughter of the shrine’s cleric, petitioned the Peshawar High Court. Children and youths wearing colourful clothes were part of the gathering. The children burst crackers while the youths sang bhajans and danced. Phool Wati and her son Kaka Ram have claimed that the temple, which has been controlled in past decades by the police, the Evacuee Property Trust Board and the provincial archaeology department, belongs to their family. Though a two-judge bench of the high court ruled last month that Phool Wati had failed to provide evidence of her family’s ownership of the temple, it directed the reopening of the shrine for religious purposes. — PTI
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