ISLAMABAD, Oct 1 (UNI): The Quetta airbase in Pakistan was vacated last night and all aircraft of the Pakistan air force flown out, according to a newspaper here.
"The News", quoting reliable sources in Quetta, said the army had taken over the security at the airport.
The newspaper, quoting reports from Afghanistan, said the taliban had deployed stringer and other missiles on the borders with Pakistan.
Also, the ruling Afghan militia had deployed thousands of Arab fighters in Kandahar in preparation for a war, Pakistani military and political officials told The News yesterday.
The newspaper, quoting a senior military officer on the Pakistan-Afghan border in Quetta, said Taliban numbers at the frontier posts 100 meters away had been lifted from just a handful to around 300 since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
Citing sources crossing the border in recent days, the official told the newspaper that "thousands of Arab fighters" had gathered in Kandahar in preparation for the US military strikes.
UN aid envoy in Pak to plan Afghan response ISLAMABAD, Oct 1 (Reuters): The United Nations top emergency relief coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, arrived today for a fact-finding trip to Pakistan as it prepares to help hundreds of thousands of Afghans displaced or in flight from hunger and war.
"He is meeting officials all day...
And he will meet the president of Pakistan (General Pervez Musharraf), said UN spokes woman Stephanie Bunker.
His visit is timed to coincide with what appears to be an epic refugee crisis looming in a land whose problems have endured so long that donor fatigue set in years ago and which is now all but inaccessible to outside help as the United States threatens military strikes.
Afghanistan has been awash with internal refugees and shortages of basic essentials since the start of the Soviet Invasion in late 1979, and the problems have only multiplied since Soviet Forces pulled out a decade later.
Civil war and a drought for the last three years have combined to put up to an estimated 7.5 million people at risk as winter approaches, aid workers say.
On Tuesday, Oshima, the UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, was expected to fly to the Western Pakistani City of Quetta, one of the main destinations for desperate Afghans trying to flee Southern Afghanistan, Bunker said.
UN secretary-general Kofi Annan launched an emergency appeal for 584 million dollars in international aid last Thursday to help Afghanistan cope with the coming winter.
The funds are needed to face a worst-case scenario in which 1.5 million people may try to leave the mountainous country and join 3.5 million who have fled to Pakistan and Iran over the last 23 years.
Oshima is responsible for co-ordinating the response of the UNs key humanitarian relief agencies including the UN high commissioner for refugees, the childrens agency UNICEF and the world food programme.
Relief agencies estimate that some 7.5 million people out of Afghanistans 24 million population are in desperate need, of whom about two million people are on the move inside the country seeking food and safety.
Oshima told a news conference last week that "an already dire situation is approaching crisis point.
The situation worsened after the September 11 hijack attacks on the United States.
Many Afghans have since fled from their homes fearing US military strikes after Washington accused the ruling Taliban of sheltering saudi-born militant Osama Bin Laden, its prime suspect in the carnage.
US backs covert support for anti-Taliban NEW YORK, Oct 1 (Reuters): US President George W.
Bush has approved covert efforts to help the anti-Taliban opposition in Afghanistan, including possible military funding, The New York Times reported today.
The paper also said bush had authorised 100 million Dollars in fresh relief aid to Afghan refugees to try to quell resentment in Pakistan over the thousands of refugees pouring across the border every day.
The New York Times said covert support for opposition groups was a key element of a US plan to oust the Taliban, sheltering fugitive Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born militant whom the United States accuses of masterminding the Sept.
11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.
"The purpose is to enhance their ability to move against the Taliban," the paper quoted an unidentified US official as saying.
"It is not limited to political support." The covert aid would not only be destined for the Northern Alliance rebels but could also be used to stir up resistance to the Taliban among Pashtun tribal groups in the south, the paper said.
The Taliban, a puritanical Islamic Movement made up largely of majority Pashtuns, wrested control of most of Afghanistan from fractured opposition groups in 1996.
The Northern Alliance, made up of various minority groups including Ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks, control five to 10 percent of northern Afghanistan.
US officials indicated that the assistance included financing, but they declined to provide details of the effort, the report said.
Funds could enable the anti-Taliban groups to buy weapons, recruit new fighters, bribe Taliban commanders to switch sides, or undertake other efforts to weaken the regime, the newspaper said.
White house chief of staff Andrew Card made clear yesterday that the United States wants Afghanistans ruling Taliban out of power if it continues to support bin Laden.
"If they are going to be associated with these terrorist acts, they should not be in power," card told fox news yesterday.
defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Washington should find ways to assist anti-Taliban groups where appropriate.
Also yesterday, the Taliban rulers acknowledged they were holding bin Laden at a secret location.
Fears of a possible US military strike have sent Afghans fleeing across the border to Pakistan.
The United Nations refugee agency has started preparing for a possible influx of a million refugees.
The New York times said Bush had approved 100 million Dollars worth of US aid to refugees which would help smooth relations with Pakistan, a key player in the hunt for bin Laden.
Mr Bush on Friday earmarked 25 million Dollars to help agencies meet refugees needs.
It was not immediately clear if the latest figure was additional to the earlier approved funding.
Britain freezes Taliban assets worth 88 m Dlrs LONDON, Oct 1 (DPA): Britain has frozen 88 million dollars of financial assets linked to the Taliban, which is accused of harbouring Osama bin Laden, government sources said today.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown is to make a formal announcment in a speech to the Labour Party annual conference in Brighton later in the day.
Brown will stress the importance of cutting off the flow of finance to terrorists and outline new measures to strengthen Britains anti-terrorist legislation, particularly on the financial front.
Some of the funds were frozen before the attacks on the United States on September eleven, in terms of a UN resolution.
Taliban recapture key area, boosted by defections ISLAMABAD, Oct 1 (Reuters): Taliban fighters today recaptured a key area of western Afghanistan lost to opposition forces at the weekend and boosted their ranks with the defection of around 60 northern alliance fighters, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said.
Taliban fighters launched a pre-dawn attack and wrested back Qadis district in Badghis province after three hours of fighting, AIP said.
The EBB and flow of territory gained and lost is typical of warfare in Afghanistan.
Mass defections are also common as local warlords frequently switch allegiance depending on who is in the ascendency , usually taking all the men under their command with them.
Two Taliban fighters and three opposition soldiers were killed in the fighting, the report said, adding that the Taliban forces had also captured six prisoners.
No independent confirmation of the report was available.
In addition, AIP said about 60 opposition fighters had defected to the Taliban in Namak Aab area in northern Takhar province after fierce fighting.
The opposition yesterday reported that nearly 600 Taliban fighters had deserted or defected to their side at the weekend.
Both sides have intensified fighting following the devastating September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The united states blames the attacks on saudi-born fugitive osama bin laden, who lives as a guest of the taliban, and has vowed to track him down and punish his protectors.
Northern alliance forces, angered by the assassination of their commander general ahmed shah masood last month, have stepped up their attacks, emboldened by the prospect of u.S.
Retaliatory strikes further undermining the taliban.
Pak party urges diplomats to protect Afghans ISLAMABAD, Oct 1 (Reuters): A Pakistani Islamic Party stepped up its efforts in support of Afghanistans isolated ruling Taliban by writing letters today to diplomats urging them to save and protect the Afghans.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), led by pro-Taliban leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman, launched a diplomatic offensive to try to gather support for the Taliban, which is under threat of US strikes for extending protection to Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden.
Washington says bin Laden and his associates are the prime suspects in the deadly September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington in which nearly 6,000 people are feared dead.
"Jui expects your wise nation to play an effective and honest role to protect this unhappy nation (Afghanistan) in particular, and the whole world in general from another terrible war," said the letter, to be delivered to all ambassadors based in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, secretary general of the party, told Reuters the letter would be hand-delivered to most of the ambassadors, including the United States and European countries.
"In case diplomats are not available becase they are also very busy these days, we will send it by mail or fax," he said.
Jui, which has a large following in Pakistans north west frontier province and southern Baluchistan province, has been an active supporter of the Taliban, many of whom have studied in their religious seminaries in Pakistan.
Fiji coup leader barred for now from parliament SUVA, Oct 1 (Reuters): A Fijian court rejected a bid today by detained coup leader George Speight to be allowed to take up a seat in parliament after he was voted in at an election last month.
Justice Peter Serman ruled that Speight would have to remain in jail on an island off the capital Suva until his trial for treason, and would not be given leave to sit in parliament until the court case had finished.
Speight, leader of a band of armed nationalists who stormed parliament in May last year and took Fijis first Ethnic Indian Prime Minister hostage, was elected in an August 25-September 1 General election.
The ballot saw a sharp polarisation in the racially divided South Pacific Nation.
Indigenous Fijians backed the winner, prime minister Laisenia Qrase, while Ethnic Indians voted for deposed prime minister Mahendra Chaudhrys Fijian Labour Party.
The new parliament was sworn in today in the building where Speight held Chaudhry and most of his multiracial cabinet hostage for 56 days.
Ethnic Indians, who make up 44 percent of the 800,000 population of the Archipelago, have been in Fiji for more than a century after Fijis former British colonial masters shipped in their ancestors as indentured labour for the sugar plantations.
They are economically dominant and indigenous Fijians, fearing ethnic Indians may also become politically powerful, have staged three nationalist coups since 1987, shaking Fijis fragile democracy.
Observers say this years election was clean.
But Qarase appeared to ignore the constitution in appointing his cabinet without including any members of Chaudhrys Labour Party.
As the largest opposition party, Labour is entitled to some cabinet seats.
Chaudhry has lodged an application for the High Court to declare Qarases government invalid.
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