Us,Iranian and Afghan Talks/Whoa

 

Published on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 by the Associated Press

US and Iran at Afghan Talks

The United States was meeting today with countries from around the world, including its adversary Iran, to seek support for its new strategy to end a stalemate in Afghanistan.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not expected to hold substantive talks with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh at the meeting in The Hague.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, left, and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karma, right, are seen at the start of a meeting at the Afghanistan Conference in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday March 31, 2009. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

But the conference would nonetheless bring the two together as Washington tries to enlist regional support in tackling Islamist militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Richard Holbrooke, US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Iran's presence at the conference was a logical part of efforts to produce peace for Afghans.

"How can you talk about Afghanistan and exclude one of the countries that's a bordering, neighbouring state?" he told reporters in The Hague. "The presence of Iran here is obvious."

Ahead of the conference, Akhoundzadeh repeated Iran's opposition to the presence of US troops in Afghanistan.

"The presence of foreign troops cannot bring peace and stability for Afghanistan," he was quoted as saying by Iran's official IRNA news agency.

"It encourages radicalism," he said. "This policy (that the Western countries) decide for the Afghan nation and for the Afghan officials does not work out any more."  Full Story

London Bridge Is Falling Down

Sunday, March 29, 2009 by TimesOnline/UK

G20 Protesters Face Police with Tasers

by David Leppard and Steven Swinford

LONDON - Scotland Yard is to deploy officers armed with 50,000-volt Taser stun guns to deal with violent demonstrators planning to disrupt this week's G20 summit in London.

Thousands of demonstrators take part in the "Put People First" march through central London. Tens of thousands of demonstrators from trade unions and environmental and anti-capitalism groups marched through London Saturday, starting a series of mass protests ahead of the G20 summit.(AFP/Leon Neal)

The centrepiece of the security plan will be hundreds of officers from the Metropolitan police territorial support group, who are routinely armed with speedcuffs, extended batons and CS gas spray.

The Met confirmed yesterday that they will be supported by officers equipped with Tasers on stand-by should trouble break out.

"There will be an armed response vehicle element to this operation and [those officers] will be carrying Tasers," said a spokeswoman.

The Met's admission that Tasers could be used for the first time in the UK during riots came as protest groups claimed police had contacted them to warn that a day of protest in the City on Wednesday would be "very violent".

All police leave has been cancelled and 10,500 officers, including reinforcements from other forces, will be deployed in the biggest policing operation undertaken in London.

Demonstrations intended to bring the capital's financial centre to a standstill on Wednesday and disruption to the G20 summit at the ExCel centre in Docklands on Thursday will provide the first big test for Sir Paul Stephenson, the new Met commissioner. He will be aware that the protests provide an opportunity to show the world that London is up to the security and public order challenges of the 2012 Olympics Full Story