Afghan woman MP lists 'enemies'

Malalai Joya says she has survived five attempts on her life

Afghanistan's people are trapped between powerful enemies, according to Malalai Joya, an outspoken member of the Afghan parliament.

Ms Joya named those "enemies" as Nato forces who bomb from the sky, the resurgent Islamists of the Taliban, and the country's "warlords".

Speaking to anti-war activists in London she insisted Afghans were capable of governing themselves.

But she dismissed next month's presidential election as a "deception".

Ms Joya technically remains an MP, but has been suspended since 2007, on charges of insulting the parliament after she compared it to a zoo.

She has been called "the bravest woman in Afghanistan", and is well known for her opposition both to the Taliban and to the warlords who backed the American-led campaign to overthrow the Taliban in 2001.

She says she has survived five assassination attempts.

In her address to supporters of the UK's Stop the War Coalition in London, Ms Joya was scathing about Nato operations in Afghanistan. She said the actions of Nato were serving only to further the misery of ordinary Afghan people.

She called for Western taxpayers not to support a situation which she said was causing the death of Afghan civilians and emboldening the Taliban.

She said that under the watch of Nato, drug production in the country had flourished - and that its proceeds were funding the Taliban.

Scores held in US corruption probe

The arrests came as part of a 10-year investigation dubbed 'Operation Bid Rig' [AFP] More than 40 people, including politicians, officials and prominent rabbis, have been arrested in connection with corruption, money laundering and organ trafficking in the US state of New Jersey. The sweeping investigation, which saw 44 people arrested in raids on Thursday, is believed to be one of the biggest such actions in a state long associated with corruption. Authorities said the arrests were part of a two-pronged 10-year investigation called "Operation Bid Rig". Five rabbis were among suspects arrested, along with the mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield, prosecutors said. Ed Kahrer, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's white collar crime and public corruption programme in New Jersey, called corruption "a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state". "New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the nation," Kahrer, who has worked on the investigation since it began in July 1999, said. "It has become ingrained in New Jersey's political culture." Organ trading Investigators used an informant, a real estate developer charged with bank fraud three years ago, to uncover a money laundering ring and organ trafficking, as well as corruption by politicians who exploited loopholes in state law to disguise bribes as campaign contributions. Among those arrested Peter Cammarano III, mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, accused of accepting $25,000 in cash bribes Dennis Elwell, mayor of Secaucus, New Jersey, charged with taking $10,000 Anthony Suarez, mayor of Ridgefield, charged with agreeing to accept an illegal $10,000 Leona Beldini, deputy mayor of Jersey City, charged with conspiracy to commit extortion by taking $20,000 in illegal campaign contributions Daniel Van Pelt and L Harvey Smith, both state assemblymen, accused of taking payoffs The politicians arrested in the investigation were not accused of any involvement in the money laundering or the trading in human organs. The money laundering network is alleged to have laundered tens of millions of dollars through Jewish charities controlled by rabbis in New York and New Jersey. They laundered some $3m for the undercover witness between June 2007 and July 2009, authorities said. Investigators raided several synagogues and among those arrested was Saul Kassin, the chief rabbi of Syrian Jews in the US. Those arrested also included Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, a Brooklyn rabbi, who was charged with conspiring to arrange the sale of an Israeli citizen's kidney for $160,000 for a transplant for the informant's fictitious uncle. Rosenbaum was quoted as saying he had been arranging the sale of kidneys for 10 years. 'Public corruption' Ralph Marra, the acting US attorney, told a press conference that the sweep demonstrated "the pervasive nature of public corruption in this state". "The politicians willingly put themselves up for sale," he said, while "clergymen cloak their extensive criminal activity behind a facade of rectitude". US television footage showed FBI and tax agents bringing a stream of handcuffed suspects, including the rabbis wearing traditional Orthodox Jewish garb, into custody in the city of Newark. Most of the defendants facing corruption charges were released on bail. The money laundering defendants faced bail between $300,000 and $3m, and most were ordered to submit to electronic monitoring. New Jersey has long been notorious for official corruption and organised crime and is best known as the setting for the popular television show "The Sopranos".

New lizard species found in India

Cnemasspis Kolhapurensis is endemic to parts of India's Western Ghats Scientists have discovered a new species of lizard in the lush Western Ghats mountain range in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The small reptile is a form of gecko and was found by taxonomist Varad Giri in the Kolhapur district. It has been named Cnemasspis kolhapurensis. Mr Giri and his co-workers published their findings in this month's edition of the Zootaxa journal. It is the third new species of lizard recently discovered in the area. Mr Giri, a curator at the Bombay Natural History Society, told the BBC that the Western Ghats has never been surveyed for amphibians and reptiles. "A gecko of this particular character has not been recognised elsewhere in the world," he said. Iridescent sheen Mr Giri said he first noticed the lizard in 2005 during a survey of one of the forests in the area.

Key road A9 re-opens

	Passengers could travel through A9 without LTTE check points after 19 years

The main highway in Sri Lanka linking the northern Jaffna peninsula to the south has been opened to civilian traffic after years of conflict.

The road (the A9) came under government control this year during the final onslaught against Tamil Tiger rebels.

Before that it had been rebel-controlled for more than twenty years.

The highway was ceremonially opened to the public by Basil Rajapaksa, MP and Senior Advisor to the President, the government information department said.

It said 210 passengers were transported from Jaffna to Medawachchiya in five buses provided by the government.

British PM defends Afghan offensive

US troops have 120 Chinook helicopters, while the UK has 10 in Helmand [AFP] The British prime minister has been forced to defend his country’s military role in Afghanistan. Speaking on the British Forces Broadcasting Service on Sunday, Gordon Brown admitted it had been a "difficult summer" and would continue to be so. "We are making progress ... [and] showing signs of success," he said, amid widespread criticism in the UK of the US-led offensive in Helmand province. His comments came after 15 British soldiers were killed in just 10 days during combat with the Taliban in the southern province - more than UK forces suffered in Iraq. Military experts have criticised the government, saying British forces have been disadvantaged by a lack of proper equipment and support. 'Tremendous bashing' Tom King, a former British defence minister, said a lack of adequate air support was causing the high casualty rate. In depth Video: Bureaucratic battlefield hurdles for US Video: US forces chase elusive foe in Afghanistan Video: Afghans flee US offensive in Helmand Video: US strives to overcome Afghan hostility Video: US troops engage Taliban in major battle Riz Khan: Seeds of terror Focus: Switching sides in Afghanistan "Some of the equipment is getting a tremendous bashing out there,” he said. "Where there really is a critical shortage is helicopters." The 5,000 British troops in Helmand have just 10 Chinook helicopters compared to the US marines’ 120 in the centre and south of the province. British troops having to move overland are at greater risk from roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices as a result. Amadshah Aamadzai, a former prime minister of Afghanistan, told Al Jazeera that the Helmand operation would achieve "nothing but casulaties, killing and bloodshed". "The only solution is that they should begin negotiations towards peace. No one will gain through fighting, not American, not Afghan, not Taliban," he said. "This is the right time for both sides to start negotiations and talk about peace." Serious casualties Colonel Peter Mahoney, the director of a field hospital at the main British base in Afghanistan, said that seriously injured soldiers were being flown back to the UK for treatment. More than 30 soldiers were taken off the battlefield and treated at the hospital over the weekend, with doctors working round the clock. "There's no doubt it has been wearing," he said. He added that medical staff had been warned before the start of Operation Panther's Claw at the beginning of July and extra staff had been mobilised in anticipation of a surge in casualties. Barack Obama, the US president, said on Saturday the military offensive in Afghanistan had "a long way to go". "We knew this summer was going to be tough fighting ... we still have a long way to go," Obama told Britain's Sky News channel in an interview.

Ambush kills 29 Indian policemen

--BBC--

Maoists have a presence in 182 districts of India The number of policemen killed in an attack by suspected Maoist rebels in India's Chhattisgarh state has risen to 29, police say. The attack took place in Rajnandgaon, 90km (56 miles) from capital Raipur. Two officers were killed initially, and a larger force sent to the scene was then attacked, according to police reports The district police chief was also killed in what is said to be one of the worst attacks by rebels in the state. Maoist rebels are fighting for communist rule in a number of states. The conflict has killed more than 6,000 people in 20 years. Convoy ambushed The first attack took place in Madanwada early Sunday morning in which two policemen were killed. Superintendent of police for Rajnandgaon, Vinod Kumar Choubey, was killed when he was leading police reinforcements to the area, the deputy inspector general of police, Pawan Dev, said. His convoy was ambushed between Khoregaon and Karkoti villages. Between 200 and 300 rebels attacked the police convoy. The two sides fought a fierce gun battle in which Mr Choubey and several other policemen were killed, Mr Dev said. A total of 29 bodies had been recovered and search operations were continuing in the area, he said.

Cranes crashed at Delhi Metro site

One of the cranes malfunctioned, leading to the accident Three cranes have crashed trying to lift a collapsed steel girder at the Delhi metro rail construction site, a day after a deadly accident there. The truck-mounted cranes had lifted the girder off the ground when they buckled under the weight. Nobody was injured but television footage showed people at the site running away to avoid the debris.