Afghan President Hamid Karzai is arriving in Pakistan today on a two-day visit.
During his stay, Karzai would meet with President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani. According to diplomatic sources, Pakistan would discuss India’s interference in Balochistan and security of Pakistanis present in Afghanistan with Karzai, while the latter would likely to raise regional strategy, and issues of 2 million Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan.
Sources added that the Afghan President would also seek shifting of arrested Taliban leader Baradar. It would be Karzai’s first visit to Pakistan after being elected President for the second term.

KABUL: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Kabul on Wednesday to hold talks with his Afghan counterpart, a spokesman in Hamid Karzai’s office said.

It is Ahmadinejad’s first visit to Iran’s eastern neighbour since Karzai was re-elected following a deeply controversial election in Afghanistan in August.

“President Ahmadinejad arrived,” Siamak Hirawi, a deputy spokesman for Karzai, told media.

“They will discuss bilateral relations between the two countries and expansion of economic relations between the two countries,” Hirawi said.

The two presidents were also scheduled to discuss economic projects that benefit both countries, including a railway line from Tajikistan through Afghanistan to Iran, transport and similar projects, he said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai would arrive in Pakistan tomorrow on a two-day visit.
Karzai would be visiting the country for the first time after being elected as president for the second term. During his stay, Karzai would meet President Zardari and PM Gilani.
The foreign ministry said that the said visit would boost the bilateral ties between the two countries.
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KABUL: Afghanistan’s president appealed to Taliban fighters Sunday to put down their weapons and accept Afghan laws as the government and its international allies push a program to entice militants away from the insurgency.

President Hamid Karzai spoke three days after he and Western backers agreed at a conference in London to create a more comprehensive program to bring Taliban insurgents over to the government’s side in order to reduce violence that has raged in recent years.

Karzai stressed the plans to reconcile with Taliban leaders as much as they are willing, but he made clear his offer of reconciliation did not extend to anyone in al-Qaida, saying there was no room in Afghanistan for terrorists.

“We are trying our best to reach as high as possible to bring peace and security,” Karzai said in his first news conference since returning from London.

Karzai has said previously he is willing to talk to Taliban leader Mullah Omar and welcome back any militants who are willing to recognize the Afghan constitution. However, the Taliban has always set the withdrawal of international troops as a precondition for any negotiations.

Karzai called that unrealistic, saying the NATO coalition should be expected to stay until they achieve their goal of removing al-Qaida and other terrorist threats.

Afghanistan’s international backers agreed in London to provide funding for a renewed effort to woo Taliban away from al-Qaida and the insurgency, given the commitment of the Afghan government to institute a more comprehensive and thorough program, including jobs and education.

International conference on Afghanistan would be kicked off today, which would be attended by Afghanistan, Pakistan, Britain, Turkey and Germany and 70 other countries.
During the conference the Nato allies would announce deployment of more troops to Afghanistan. President Karzai would take all allies on board regarding plan of talks with the Taliban. The conference is being held at the time when the Taliban have intensified their attacks in Afghanistan despite the build up of US troops over there. A fund would also be formed during the conference to woo Taliban lay down their arms.

In December 2001, during the American invasion of Afghanistan, the German city of Bonn hosted a conference of anti-Taliban allies and regional leaders to choose the leader of an Afghan Transitional Authority — widely known as the Bonn Conference. The Conference chose Hamid Karzai, who was subsequently elected President in 2004.

In 2006, 66 states and 15 international organizations participated in the London Conference on Afghanistan, which was chaired by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The government of Afghanistan provided an overview of developments in the country and of its strategies, priorities and plans for economic and political development in the following five years.

WASHINGTON: Hamid Karzai is an Undeserving Partner: Pelosi, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is an “unworthy partner” who does not deserve a big boost either in US troops or civilian aid, US House of Representatives . Pelosi, a skeptic on sending more troops to Afghanistan, also said in an interview with National Public Radio aired that there was not strong support among her fellow Democrats in Congress for “any big ramp-up of troops” to oppose resurgent Taliban forces. She told in the interview that she had asked fellow Democrats to give President Barack Obama room to decide his Afghan strategy, which is expected to be announced in the coming weeks. Once Obama, also a Democrat, announces his decision, lawmakers would “not be shy” about responding, she said. “The president of Afghanistan has proven to be an unworthy partner. We can not fund a mission where we don’t have a reliable partner and where whatever civilian investments we want to make, which are so necessary, will be diverted for a corrupt purpose,” Pelosi told. Congress appropriates funding for military campaigns. But the controversial Iraq war has demonstrated that many lawmakers are reluctant to cut off money for US troops even for a conflict they dislike.

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan: US Drone Attack in North Waziristan, 4 killed,  headquarter of North Waziristan, 2 guided missiles were fired on a house, in which 4 people got killed and 6 others were injured. The sources claim that the death toll may rise. Till now, there is no information regarding the killing of any foreigner in this missile attack. Official sources also maintained that the house targeted was being used by some foreigners.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Blast in Peshawar, 10 killed, At least 10 people were killed and several others sustained severe injuries in a blast at Khyber road near Kachehri in Peshawar.
It was a suicide blast. He told that several nearby buildings and vehicles were also damaged in the blast. The correspondent told that 20-25 kg explosive material was used in the blast.
Police have cordoned off the area and Khyber road has been sealed. Rescue teams have been reached the incident place and started relief activities. The injured are being shifted to Lady Reading hospital where emergency have been declared. Condition of some of the injured is stated to be critical.

KABUL : Hamid Karzai To Be Sworn in for 2nd Term,  Hamid Karzai will be sworn in as Afghan president for a second term on Thursday, after the United States ramped up pressure on him to rid the war-torn country of its endemic corruption.

Kabul is under a security lockdown for Karzai’s inauguration at his heavily fortified palace in the presence of Western dignitaries who have urged him to implement concrete reforms after a disastrous re-election steeped in fraud.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began her first visit to Kabul as Washington’s top diplomat on Wednesday, saying the inauguration marked a “critical moment” for the nation following the controversial August vote.

Washington has increasingly expressed concerns about Karzai’s reliability as a US ally and effective head of state, urging his government to eradicate corruption in order to counter an intensifying Taliban-led insurgency.

President Barack Obama has for weeks been mulling whether to send up to 40,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan, a decision made no easier by the political upheaval that surrounded Karzai’s disputed re-election.

“He’s got some strengths but he’s got some weaknesses,” Obama told CNN of Karzai, saying his own decision on the troops would be announced “soon”.

Obama’s administration has warned Afghans that America’s military commitment there, eight years after the 2001 US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime and swept Karzai to power, will not be “open-ended”.

“We also have to make sure that we’ve got an effective partner in Afghanistan. And that’s something that we are examining very closely and presenting some very clear benchmarks for the Afghan government,” Obama said.

Clinton has been at the forefront of international pressure on Karzai to ensure his next government is clean, directly linking future levels of military and financial aid to progress in eradicating official corruption.

“We stand at a critical moment on the eve of the inauguration of President Karzai’s second term,” said Clinton after arriving in Kabul.

“There is now a clear window of opportunity for President Karzai and his government to make a compact with the people of Afghanistan.”

Her visit, previously unannounced, was accompanied by rigorous security, reflecting increasing instability in Kabul where suicide attacks have killed around 100 people in the last three months alone.

The capital is on high alert for Taliban attacks to coincide with the inauguration, with many foreign employees of embassies, the United Nations and aid groups ordered to remain indoors.

Armed police and paramilitary units patrolled Kabul roads and intersections, and combined security forces — army, police and intelligence — threw a ring of steel around the city, a security official said.

Few on a guest list of 800 were expected to rank above foreign minister for the event scheduled for 11:00 am (0630 GMT) at the heavily guarded presidential palace in central Kabul, Western diplomats said.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari also arrived Wednesday, officials said, and leaders of some Central Asian states were expected Thursday.

Karzai, 51, was declared re-elected on November 2 by his own officials after massive ballot-stuffing — mostly in his favour — marred the August 20 election and his challenger Abdullah Abdullah withdrew from a run-off.

In Berlin, where Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Wednesday a year-long extension to the German mission in Afghanistan, her foreign minister became the latest international figure to fire a shot across Karzai’s bows.

Guido Westerwelle said the extension proved Germany was committed to security in Afghanistan, but warned: “It is about more than security, it is also about reconstruction and it is about good leadership, including the fight against corruption.”

The United States and Nato members have more than 100,000 troops in the country fighting to end an increasingly virulent Taliban-led insurgency.

GOJRA: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday arrived in Gojra to express solidarity with the inter-communal riots victims of the city.

Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif was also accompanied with the PM who would visit the Christian Colony and local church of the city during his visit.

The PM would also condole with the bereaved families of the eight deceased killed during the riots besides meeting with the city’s dignitaries of both the Muslim and Christian communities.