Reg: No 352 Volume No. 3758 Saturday December 16, 2017 Qaws 25, 1396 www.outlookafghanistan.net Price: 15/-Afs

Quote of the DayThe foundation of every state is the education of its youth.

Diogenes Laertius

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We can see the radical militant groups occupy larger and larger swathes of land at the northern border of Afghanistan.

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin in his annual speech on Thursday said his country is ready to cooperate and work with the United States in counter-narcotics and counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan. Putin said threats are increasing in Afghanistan, especially in

KABUL - Lieutenant General Richard Crip-well, the deputy commander of Resolute Sup-port, said there is a need for further military and financial pressures on the Taliban and other terrorist groups during this winter.The Resolute Support deputy commander said the NATO and US forces will continue to support their Afghan partners during the winter in order to make the insurgent groups to quit violence and join the peace process. He made the remarks at a ceremony on end of a Resolute Support commander in the wet zone on Friday.“We arrived at a challenging time, but progress is being made. Togeth-er with our Afghan partners we continue to press the enemy through-out the winter applying financial and social pressure as well as military affects,” the Resolute Support deputy commander said.

the northern parts and that it is worrying. He said if Russia and the US jointly work in Afghanistan, the result of the efforts will be much greater in fighting the inter-national terrorism. “This is one of the focus areas ...(More on P4)...(1)

FAIZABAD - Taliban militants should get maxi-mum advantage of the existing opportunities and join the reconciliation process, the High Peace Council (HPC) has said.These views were shared by HPC delegation with people of northeastern Badakhshan province after arriving here from Takhar province.Ataur Rahman Saleem, deputy head of the HPC, said during the trip to Takhar and Badakhshan the HPC delegation held meetings with different groups of people and shared the new peace strat-egy with them.The people hailed the new strategy, he said. “The HPC is optimistic the new peace strategy would prove positive in bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan.”Saleem said government’s ...(More on P4)...(2)

KABUL - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Er-dogan held a meeting with his Afghan counter-part Ashraf Ghani in at the Yildiz Palace in Istan-bul on Wednesday.Ghani also participated in an extraordinary sum-mit of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on President Donald Trump’s move to Jeru-salem as Israel’s capital.“The leaders had a closed-door meeting that last-ed nearly 30 minutes,” the Turkish media quoted an unnamed source as saying.Erdogan also met Iranian President Hassan Rou-hani, Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, ac-cording to the Anadolu news agency.(Pajhwok)

JALALABAD - Japanese ambassador to Afghani-stan on Friday promised his country would sup-port projects concerning rural development, agri-culture and livestock sectors in eastern Nangarhar province.Mitsuji Suzuka held out the promise during a meeting with Nangarhar governor Gulab Mangal, a statement from the governor’s house said.It said Mangal and Suzuka talked about the politi-cal, social, economic, ...(More on P4)...(4)

KABUL - Former Independent Election (IEC) chief Fazl Ahmad Manawi on Friday claimed the government had no intention to hold parliamentary elections and was afraid of fair vote.Speaking at a gathering of the Afghanistan Salvation Alliance here, Manawi, a former judge, said the government had not yet reached the conclusion whether it could hold the next year’s elec-tions or not.He said the government was afraid of a strong parliament and thus trying to repeat the 1393 elections.“The international community wants elections to Wolesi Jirga and district councils on sched-ule, but if the government in-tends to hold elections like it did in 1393, it would be better not to hold the elections.”Manawi said the incumbent IEC members were not independent and they were worst than their predecessors because they were insulted and their chief removed illegally.Similarly, the former IEC chief said the government had no in-tention to bring peace and the Taliban were also not willing to reconcile with the government.Other speakers also criticized the government performance. (Pajhwok)

WASHINGTON - One reason for supporting the American mission in Afghanistan is the difference it makes to women and children, a top US senator has said.The Afghan woman was strong, resourceful and resilient. Sena-tor Jeanne Shaheen said while speaking at a reception at the Embassy of Afghanistan for CARE USA’s Global Leaders Network in support of Afghan-istan.“The Western media has de-picted the Afghan woman as a helpless and weak individual. I have said before and I shall repeat it: The Afghan woman is strong, resourceful and re-silient. I think that explains it very well.”The senator said she had a chance to see that firsthand this year when she got engaged with helping the girls robotics team come to the United States.“One of the big reasons that I have supported our continued engagement in Afghanistan is because of the difference it has made for women and girls,” Shaheen added.At the event, CARE USA awarded Susan Retik, Nancy Frees Fountain, Tex Fountain, and Dusty Huscher for their outstanding work on behalf of the organisation.Afghan Ambassador Hamdul-lah Mohib praised the work of CARE in Afghanistan. “Since its establishment in Afghani-stan in 1961, ...(More on P4)...(5)

According to him, the size of the Afghan Special Force and the Air Force will be dou-bled next year.At the same event, Italy’s Ambassador in Kabul Roberto ...(More on P4)...(7)

Resolute Support deputy commander says they continue to press insurgent groups throughout the winter applying financial and military pressure.

HPC Team Tours Takhar, Badakhshan

with Message

Ghani Meets Turkish Counterpart Behind Closed Doors

Japan Promises Exclusive Aid with Nangarhar

Government Afraid of Transparent Elections: Manawi

Afghan Women Strong and Resilient: Senator Shaheen

IEC Gives Govt. 4-Day Ultimatum

Resolute Support Stresses Further Pressure on TalibanGovt Asked to Grow Online Trade

Russia Ready to Cooperate with US on

Afghanistan: Putin

KABUL - The IEC repeated its earlier warning that it would select one of its members to lead the commission unless gov-ernment met the deadline.The Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC) on Thursday called on government to step up efforts to ap-point the head the election management body within four days.The IEC also repeated its earlier warning that it would select one of its members to lead the election body unless the govern-ment met the deadline.A commissioner from the election commission of Afghanistan Thursday alleged that the elections seemed to be off the gov-ernment’s agenda.While the government claims that it had directed the selection committee of the election commission to pick one nominee to take charge of the IEC, officials from the selection committee

KABUL - Consumers complained about the high cost of in-ternet services which according to them has hampered the online business.Ways to improve online markets in the country have been dis-cussed at a gathering of government officials and investors in Kabul.According to government statistics, at least 30 percent of the population used internet services, but at a high cost.“Everyone has become tired of letters and signatures, there-fore we established an office under name of Asaan – Easy – through which we want to ease ...(More on P4)...(6)

have hit out at the government insisting it had not done so. “We are committed to appointing someone as chief of the IEC to ensure that our work ...(More on P4)...(3)