Investigators search for evidence inside the wreckege of a police bus at the site of a bomb blast in Kabul, June 17.

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 9--Insurgents in Afghanistan are fighting harder and there are more foreign extremists in the battlefield, the top international commander in the country told AFP.
But there is no evidence to link the inflow of foreign “jihadists“ to elements in in Iraq that may want to stir things up here, said US General Dan McNeill, head of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.
“For some number of weeks now I have watched with interest the increased number of foreign fighters that we have seen on the battlefield opposing us but I can’t connect that to Iraq yet,“ he said in an interview Sunday.
There have been claims that battle-hardened fighters in Iraq are influencing the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan where rebel tactics, such as suicide bombings, echo those used with more devastating effect in the Iraqi violence.
McNeill described these foreign fighters, whom he could not quantify, as “a lot more extreme than your typical Taliban extremist.“
“These days we’re seeing some improved tactics, they are fighting a little harder and maybe a little better,“ added the general who commands 35,500 soldiers from 37 nations.
In some cases the Taliban insurgents have appeared “compelled to fight by some of these foreign fighters“ and to be more organized in their presence, he said.
But the character of the Taliban was difficult to pin down, the 61-year-old commander said at the ISAF compound in central Kabul.
Estimates of its size ranged from 5,000 to more than 20,000, he said. It was made up of tiers of men, from the hardcore and extreme who may be based outside the country to fierce nationalists and then opportunists just looking to earn some cash.
In this grouping were some who may be persuaded to join the internationally sponsored move towards democracy Afghanistan signed up to after the Taliban government was driven from power in 2001 for sheltering Al-Qaeda.
The Afghan government and “some significant international entities“, but not ISAF, were in dialogue with the Taliban, said McNeill, who took charge of ISAF in February.

WASHINGTON, July 9--US President George W. Bush faced a fresh attack from congressional Democrats over his Iraq policy Monday, as a newspaper report revealed he was under pressure to announce a redeployment of US troops in Iraq.
Senior US officials are debating whether President George W. Bush should announce his intention to begin a gradual withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi cities sooner rather than later, The New York Times reported.
Citing unnamed administration officials, the newspaper said Bush and his aides once thought they could wait to begin those discussions until after September 15.
That is when the top military commander and the US ambassador are scheduled to present a progress report.
But some of Bush’s aides now believe forces are combining against him just as the Senate prepares to begin what promises to be a contentious debate on the defense authorization bill, the report said.
About half a dozen Republican senators have recently announced they can no longer support Bush’s Iraq strategy and demanded change.
As a result, The Times said, some aides are now telling Bush that to forestall more defections, he needs to announce plans for a far more narrowly defined mission for US troops that would allow for a staged pullback.
The president rejected this strategy in December when it was proposed by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.
In a sign of growing concern in the administration, Defense Secretary Robert Gates canceled his Latin American tour Sunday to attend meetings on Iraq.
Last week, national security adviser Stephen Hadley was called in from a brief vacation to join discussions on Iraq.
Also included were political strategist Karl Rove and Joshua Bolten, the White House chief of staff, according to the report.
Officials describe Hadley as deeply concerned that the loss of Republicans could accelerate this week, a fear shared by Rove, the report said.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, July 9--Ethiopian prosecutors asked for the death penalty Monday for 38 politicians and activists accused of inciting violence in an attempt to overthrow the government.
The court is expected to issue a sentence on July 16. The accused, who have chosen not to defend themselves, did not speak during Monday’s session but will have a chance to do so during next Monday’s court session, AP said.
“They have not shown any sign of regret in the court, and they have not (accepted) the sovereignty of the court,“ prosecutor Abraham Tetemke said during Monday’s court session. “Therefore we request that they should be punished with capital punishment.“
The prosecution said they felt the maximum penalty was appropriate for the leaders, who were part of a group of more than 100 people jailed for allegedly inciting violence after Ethiopia’s controversial May 2005 elections. While there is a death row in Ethiopia, no one has been executed since 1999.
“They have attempted an outrage against the constitution and the constitutional order, and attempted to disintegrate the nation,“ Tetemke said. “They have created violence and many people lost their lives. ... This criminal act has caused a serious social crisis.“
After court adjourned Monday, family members of the accused shuffled out silently, some with shocked looks on their faces, others wiping away tears. Mulatu Teklu, 67, walked dazedly out of court after he learned that his youngest son, 32-year-old Yenene Mulatu, could die for his actions.
Others were more optimistic. Asrat Tassie, a former defendant and opposition politician who was among 25 defendants who were released from jail in April, said he was sure that a deal to pardon the leaders would come to fruition. Addis Ababa swirled with rumors for weeks about a deal to pardon the prisoners, but Prime Minister Meles Zenawi rebuffed them, saying that the matter would be decided by the courts.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 9--Lebanese authorities have identified the bodies of 10 Saudis among Fatah Al-Islam militants killed in fighting with the army in northern Lebanon, a senior security official said on Monday.
“We have identified the bodies of 10 Saudis among the 27 bodies taken by police“ since clashes first erupted between the Islamists and Lebanese armed forces on May 20, he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The official said 17 bodies of Fatah Al-Islam combatants were found in the main northern port city of Tripoli and 10 others nearby.
“Police have not taken away the body of any combatant from inside Nahr Al-Bared,“ he said, referring to the impoverished camp near Tripoli where clashes are continuing.
He said the body of Fatah Al-Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha, who has been reportedly killed in the clashes, was not among the 27 bodies recovered by police.
The Saudi newspaper Al-Watan said on Sunday that six Saudi militants had been killed in the clashes, including Abu Salim Taha whose real name is Al-Hamadi Abdullah Al-Dussari, 23.
“We are running DNA tests in order to identify the combatants, most of whom were carrying false passports or false identity cards,“ the Lebanese security official said.
On July 2, Sultan Abul Aynayn, the Lebanon chief of the mainstream Fatah faction, told AFP that 42 Saudis figured among the Fatah Al-Islam militiamen fighting the army.
He said 20 had been killed, one has surrendered, and another 21 were still holed up inside Nahr Al-Bared, three of them wounded.
The Al-Qaeda-inspired group is also made up of Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian fighters, according to the army, which has been battling Fatah Al-Islam in the bloodiest internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
According to a count compiled from official figures, the conflict has claimed at least 173 lives, including 85 soldiers. Many bodies are believed to have abandoned amid the ruins of Nahr Al-Bared.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 9--Facing growing pressure at home and abroad, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was to meet Monday with key security staff in an attempt to end a deadly stand-off at a pro-Taliban mosque.
The Pakistani government says militants with links to Al-Qaeda have taken control of the Red Mosque in Islamabad and are holding hundreds of women and children as human shields to deter a full army assault, reported AFP.
The stand-off between the security forces and militants at the mosque has left at least 20 people dead over the past week, and local television said Sunday Musharraf had authorized a final assault on the complex.
“The meeting on Monday will review options to secure safe release of stranded women and children from the mosque,“ a senior government official told AFP.
Government officials said they feared the militants could execute some of the civilians inside the mosque complex.
Troops have the complex surrounded and have been repeatedly calling on militants inside to surrender through loudspeakers. They have also blown holes in the walls to help people inside escape.
As the stand-off entered a seventh day Musharraf faced calls from opposition leaders in London to step down. The All Parties Conference (APC) said his rule had brought the country “to the edge of a precipice“.
His government also faced pressure from close ally Beijing to do more to protect Chinese nationals in Pakistan after three Chinese workers were shot dead by suspected Islamic militants in the northern city of Peshawar.
A fourth Chinese man was wounded in the raid at their residence in what security sources termed an apparent revenge attack over the mosque siege.
Students affiliated to the Red Mosque mosque have challenged the government since January with a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign, which has involved the abduction of several people they linked to prostitution, including seven Chinese.

TOKYO, July 9--Japanese are growing increasingly dissatisfied with the scandal-hit government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with its disapproval rate hitting the highest level yet, according to a newspaper poll published Monday.
The result comes as the ruling coalition struggles with a series of scandals and embarrassments ahead of crucial parliamentary elections later this month. A humiliating loss in the polls could prompt leaders of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party to seek his replacement, AP said.
The Asahi newspaper said 51 percent of the 1,065 respondents to its latest telephone survey said they do not support Abe’s government, up from 48 percent in the previous survey and the worst showing yet in the daily’s series of polls.
The government’s support rate edged up to 31 percent in the survey, conducted July 7-8, from the 28 percent figure recorded in the previous poll, the paper said.
The showing reflects public dissatisfaction with how the government has handled several recent scandals, including lost pension records affecting millions of cases, and the resignation last week of the defense minister, who caused a storm of criticism by suggesting the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 were inevitable, the paper said.
Abe had to extend this year’s parliamentary session--pushing the elections back one week to July 29--to push through legislation partially resolving the missing pension records.
Slightly less than one-third of the Asahi’s poll respondents say they approve of the government’s handling of the problem, up from less than one-quarter in the
previous survey, the paper said. Fifty-six percent disapproved, down from 59 percent, it said.
Nearly 90 percent of the 309 declared candidates for the upper house election said reforming the pensions system would top their agenda if elected, according to a separate Kyodo News agency poll released Monday.
Meanwhile, Japan’s main opposition Democratic Party unveiled its manifesto Monday, saying it will clean up the pension-scandal and provide financial benefits to families with children to help stem Japan’s low birth rate. The Democrats will also secure 15.3 trillion yen (US$124 billion; -91 billion) to finance new projects by streamlining the administration, not by hiking consumption taxes.