Updated at: 1528 PST, Wednesday, September 30, 2009 UNITED NATIONS: A top U.N. envoy warned Tuesday that Afghanistan was facing "decision-time," including certification of results of the flawed presidential elections and its decision on whether to pursue a peace process with the rebels to try to end the country's eight-year-old war.Kai Eide, the world body's special representative in Afghanistan, also cautioned against relying on "simplistic" plans to split the Taliban insurgency by buying off rank-and-file fighters."This is decision-time in Afghanistan and for Afghanistan," Eide told the U.N. Security Council. "A number of critical decisions will be made over the next weeks (that) will determine the prospects for success in ending a conflict that has become more intense in the last months."These included endorsement of the results of the Aug. 20 presidential election. Preliminary results show President Hamid Karzai won a majority, but proclamation of a winner has been delayed pending a partial recount following allegations of widespread fraud. The ballot is seen as a critical test for the international effort to foster democracy."Then, the future president will have to decide on the composition of his new government and its agenda," Eide said. "Among the decisions ... is how a process of peace and reconciliation can be launched."The Security Council session came amid reports that the chief allied commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has asked President Barack Obama for up to 40,000 more troops to fight the Taliban-led insurgency and help rebuild the country.Also on Tuesday, NATO's Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he is confident that U.S. and allied troops will remain in Afghanistan "as long as it takes."After a meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House, Fogh Rasmussen said the call for more Western combat troops was not the most important issue in the war effort. "The first thing is not numbers," he said.And in Sweden, the European Union's chief military officer Gen. Henri Bentegeat said on Tuesday that nations in the 27-member bloc lack the political will to send more troops to fight the stalemated war.Many EU nations have soldiers fighting in the 68,000-strong NATO force in Afghanistan, but are reluctant to boost troop levels. As a bloc, the EU's involvement is limited to a 275-strong mission training the country's police and judiciary.At a meeting of European defense ministers in Goteborg, Sweden, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said there was no discussion within NATO about boosting troop levels so far and called for clearer goals on what the alliance hopes to accomplish in Afghanistan."We have to find common ground on where we are, and based on that we must undertake the efforts needed to reach that goal," Jung told reporters.At the U.N. Security Council, Eide said that more troops were indeed needed, but that ultimately there would have to be a political solution to the war."There has to be some kind of peace process," he said. "That process has to include not only Taliban representatives on the ground, but also the Taliban superstructure."Eide acknowledged that some rebel fighters are motivated merely by financial reasons while others cannot be reconciled with the authorities in Kabul. But he told the council that many rebels have joined the insurgency because they feel alienated from the weak, graft-ridden central government.Several U.S. commanders and politicians such as British Foreign Secretary David Miliband have proposed reaching out to the more moderate elements within the insurgency. This would essentially emulate the success of U.S. forces in Iraq, who pacified the Sunni-led rebellion centered in Anbar province by integrating the insurgents into the security forces.Eide warned that it must be left up to the Afghan government to formulate a program to talk with the Taliban."Some ... in the international community are talking about a reintegration process distinct from such a program," he said. "I would like to appeal for some caution."
Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in
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