W O R L D

Australia spells out early Afghan exit plan
Canberra, April 17
Australia will start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan this year and expects all international forces there to be playing a supporting role for Afghan forces by mid-2013, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said today.

Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard (left) with Capt Mark Tutton (centre) and Lt Col Judin, commander of the 3rd Afghan Brigade, at the multinational base in southern Afghanistan’s Tarin Kot. A file photograph

Romney leads Prez Obama in first national tracking poll
Washington, April 17
Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney leads President Barack Obama by two points in the first national daily tracking poll in run up to November presidential elections.

Angelina Jolie is special envoy of UN agency
Geneva, April 17
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has been appointed as Special Envoy of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Final sojourn

Space shuttle Discovery, attached to a modified NASA-747 aircraft, takes off for its final home at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Chantily, Virginia, from the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Tuesday. — Reuters

Sharif asks Pak, India to withdraw Siachen troops
Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday called on Pakistan and India to to withdraw their troops from Siachen and resolve the issue through dialogue.

Will allow post-study work permits, UK assures India
London, April 17
Britain has assured India that it will continue to allow post-study work-experience permits to students, provided they get appropriate jobs commensurate with their qualifications or degrees, India's Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said.

Grass with Mahatma’s blood sells for £10,000
London, April 17
A pinch of soil and blood-stained blades of grass from the place where Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 sold for £10,000 at an auction here today that also saw many other Gandhi memorabilia going under the hammer including his iconic round-rimmed glasses that fetched more than twice the estimated price.

 

 

Australia spells out early Afghan exit plan
n PM Gillard sees most Aussie troops home by mid-2013 n NATO agreement expected at Chicago meeting next month 

Canberra, April 17
Australia will start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan this year and expects all international forces there to be playing a supporting role for Afghan forces by mid-2013, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said today.

Gillard will take her timetable for Australia’s troop withdraw a year earlier than planned to a NATO conference on Afghanistan in Chicago in May. “I am now confident that Chicago will recognise mid-2013 as a key milestone in the international strategy,” Gillard said in a speech to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra.

“A crucial point when the international forces will be able to move to a supporting role across all of Afghanistan.” All foreign combat troops are due to be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and Australia had been expected to withdraw then too.

US President Barack Obama and other NATO leaders are expected to define more clearly Western withdrawal plans at the Chicago conference and outline measures to ensure Afghanistan does not collapse into civil war when foreign troops go home.

Gillard rejected suggestions the faster timetable was being driven by Obama and his desire to have withdrawal plans finalised before the November U.S. presidential election, saying it was reliant on progress agreed by Afghan and international forces.

A major assault in Kabul by the Taliban this week has raised questions about whether Afghan forces will be able to control security after foreign troops withdraw.

A spokesman for NATO’s Afghan force said its members were drawing up plans for handing over responsibility for security to Afghan forces and Gillard’s announcement would be taken into account.

“We are at the stage where all nations are discussing their plans and their role in transition,” the spokesman, Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, told Reuters.

“This will be carefully orchestrated with the government of Australia,” Jacobson said. “This is nothing that is in any way out of what we are all doing.” US forces number about 90,000 of the 130,000-strong NATO-led force. France has 3,600 troops in Afghanistan and Britain 9,500. Australia has about 1,550.

Jacobson said 2013 would be decisive for Afghanistan’s transition and the aim was for Afghan forces to take over responsibility for security for the entire country by the end of that year.

Gillard said she expected President Hamid Karzai to make an announcement on the transition in the coming months, and that it would take 12-18 months to complete the pull-out.

Australia would argue at the Chicago summit for broad and substantial international support in Afghanistan, Gillard said. “I will go to Chicago prepared for Australia to pay our fair share. Australia will also be prepared to provide niche training to the Afghan national security forces after 2014,” she said. — Reuters

Romney leads Prez Obama in first national tracking poll

Washington, April 17
Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney leads President Barack Obama by two points in the first national daily tracking poll in run up to November presidential elections.

While Romney is supported by 47 per cent of national registered voters, Obama has backing 45 per cent in the inaugural Gallup Daily tracking results from April 11-15. However, this comes within the 3 per cent margin of error.

Notably, 65-year-old Romney is yet to be formally declared the Republican presidential nominee.

Gallup said this initial report is based on interviews with 2,265 registered voters, and highlights the potential closeness of this year’s race, with Romney and Obama essentially in a statistical tie.

Gallup’s previous general election trial heat, from a national poll conducted March 25-26, showed Obama with a slight 49 per cent to 45 per cent lead over Romney. — PTI

Romney tells Prez to start packing

Washington: Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney on Tuesday asked President Barack Obama to “start packing”, showing confidence that he would be able to defeat the incumbent in the November presidential elections. “Well, start packing. That’s what I’d like to say,” 65-year-old Romney told ABC News in an interview when asked what his message to the US President was. “Obviously we have a very different view. The President, I’m sure wants another four years, but the first few didn’t go so well,” he said. Romney said Obama’s policies have not helped the American people.

Angelina Jolie is special envoy of UN agency

Geneva, April 17
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has been appointed as Special Envoy of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Angelina, who was the UNHCR’s Goodwill Ambassador, has been promoted as the special envoy of High Commissioner Antonio Guterres.

It is the first time that the UN refugee agency has named a special envoy, UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said. Such posts are usually reserved for career diplomats or retired politicians.

“Her work does go substantially beyond what we would typically see as being the normal role of a goodwill ambassador,” Edwards told reporters here.

“I don’t think you need a rocket scientist to see the benefits that she is bringing in terms of the attention that she is getting for the plight of the world’s displaced,” he added.

In her new role, Jolie is expected to “focus on large-scale crises resulting in the mass displacement of people, to undertake advocacy and represent UNHCR and Guterres at the diplomatic level, engaging with relevant interlocutors on global displacement issues,” UNHCR said in a statement. — PTI

Sharif asks Pak, India to withdraw Siachen troops
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

Meanwhile Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar speaking at a gathering in Lahore said Pakistan and India should take a lesson from the recent avalanche that buried 138 persons in the Siachen sector and review troop deployments on the Himalayan glacier.

Will allow post-study work permits, UK assures India

London, April 17
Britain has assured India that it will continue to allow post-study work-experience permits to students, provided they get appropriate jobs commensurate with their qualifications or degrees, India's Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said.

After his meetings with Britain's Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne and the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable here, Sharma told media last evening that he had raised the issue of Post Study Work Permits to students.

He shared with them India's concern about its stoppage as large number of Indian students "come here, they study hard and they should have some practical exposure".

"The Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne and the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Dr Vince Cable have assured that UK will continue to allow...The issue is how they are looking at it," Sharma said.

"What they have shared with me is that they (students) should get appropriate jobs which are commensurate with their qualifications or degrees. Now that is something which could be discussed," he added.

The minister said that the very fact that there is this reassurance at the highest level from the British Government, this issue will be resolved. "I shall follow up my talks today with a communication and I hope that given our relationship, even the fact that a very large number of Indian students from middle class families, ordinary families, students who have taken loans, come and study here and we also are keen to engage more in education and skills sectors," Sharma said. — PTI

Grass with Mahatma’s blood sells for £10,000

London, April 17
A pinch of soil and blood-stained blades of grass from the place where Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 sold for £10,000 at an auction here today that also saw many other Gandhi memorabilia going under the hammer including his iconic round-rimmed glasses that fetched more than twice the estimated price.

While the glasses sold for £34,000, the ‘charkha’ or the spinning wheel realised £26,000. — PTI