KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai renewed criticism of U.S. and NATO-led forces on Wednesday and said he was determined his government would take a stronger role in the deployment and work of foreign troops.Last month, Karzai's government presented a draft proposal to NATO with a list of measures aimed at preventing civilian casualties, including a demand that arrests of all Afghan nationals be made by Afghan security forces only and that there be "high-level" co-ordination of air strikes."Our demands are clear and they are that house searches of Afghans, arrests of Afghans and civilian casualties must cease. And they (U.S. and NATO countries) are naturally putting on pressure to make us silent and retract from this claim. This is not possible," Karzai said.Taliban attacks rose by 33 percent last year, according to NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, with casualties among foreign soldiers, Afghan forces and civilians alike, all up from 2007.The U.N. said on Tuesday the civilian death toll in 2008 had increased by 40 percent to 2,100, more than a third of them killed by Afghan and foreign forces.As violence has increased, so have the tensions between Karzai and his Western backers.Karzai, facing elections in August, has repeatedly called for an end to civilian casualties caused by foreign troops, while Western leaders constantly call for "good governance" -- implied criticism of Karzai's ability to rule effectively.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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