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January 10, 2016

Add: V-137, Street-6, Phase, 4, District 6,Shahrak Omed Sabz, Kabul

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www.thedailyafghanistan.com

US Senate Team Hails Kabul’s Initiative for Financial Reforms

KABUL - The finance minister and a US senate delegation on Saturday discussed the meas-ures being taken by the nation-al unity government to bring about financial reforms and economic stability.Minister Eklil Hakimi met the US Senate delegation led by Bob Corker at the Presidential Palace. US Ambassador to Af-ghanistan P. Michael McKin-ley and other officials also par-ticipated in the meeting.A statement from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) said the two sides conferred on reforms in the financial sectors, economic stability, making Afghanistan a regional transit hub and im-

BEIRUT - Russian strikes Sat-urday on a prison complex run by Al-Qaeda’s Syrian af-filiate in the country’s north-west killed at least 39 people, including five civilians, a monitoring group said.The strikes hit an Al-Nusra Front building, which lies near a popular market in Maarat al-Numan in Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Hu-man Rights said.The building housed the group’s religious court and a jail.Most of those killed were re-bels imprisoned by Al-Nusra, while other victims included prison guards and Al-Nusra fighters. Among the dead

QALAT - National Solidar-ity Programme of the Min-istry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD/NSP) on Saturday said that 13 development projects worth AFN21,000,000 com-pleted in Shinkidistrict of Zabul province.According toNSP Provin-cial Manager inZabul prov-ince, these projects included construction of protection walls, culverts ,irrigation canals,excavation of wells equipped and gravelling rural roads.Approximately, 4,911fami-liesin different communi-ties had an opportunity to gain access to basic human needs upon completion of these projects, he said.Since its inception in Zabul province, the NSP has been able to execute 358infrastructure projects in different sectors such as transport, water and sani-tation, irrigation, power, livelihoods, education, etc disbursing a total of AFN 272,226,464 while the work of hundreds of others is cur-rently in progress in vari-ous communities. (PR)

KABUL - Afghan National Army during crackdown against militants across the country have killed 30 armed insurgents and in-jured 15 others over the past 24 hours, Defense Ministry said in a state-ment released on Saturday.According to the state-ment, national army units also seized a number of arms and ammunitions during the operations over the said period.The statement also admit-ted that seven army sol-diers have lost their lives during the crackdown against insurgents.Militancy and counter-mil-itancy have got momentum in the conflict-hit Afghani-stan since last April when Taliban outfit launched its so-called spring offensive in the country. (Xinhua)

US Unveils New Initiatives to Counter

Violent Extremism

Operations to Recapture Darqad District Claims 17 Lives

Rights Groups Urge Caution where Gains are Concerned

Merkel Toughens Tone on Migrants as

Protesters Gather

Russia Raids on Qaeda-Run Syria Prison

Kill ‘At Least 39’

US to Deploy 1,800 Soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq

Feroz Narrowly Escapes HIV Infection

MRRD/NSP Completes 13 Development

Projects

Afghan Army Kills 30 Militants

in 24 Hours

were five civilians, including a child.Russian warplanes have been conducting air strikes against the Islamic State organisation and “other terrorist groups” in Syria since September 30.Although Al-Nusra and IS are both jihadist organisations, they are fierce rivals and regu-larly clash in Syria.Al-Nusra also has tense re-lationships with non-jihadist rebel groups that oppose its extreme interpretation of Is-lamic law.In Idlib, it has formed an al-liance with rebel groups, in-cluding hardline faction Ahrar al-Sham. The Army of Con-quest ...(More on P4)...(9)

affront women must feel the full force of the law,” Mer-kel told journalists in Mainz, promising a reduction over the longer term in the flow of migrants to Germany.Under German law, asylum seekers are typically only deported if they have been sentenced to at least three years in prison, and provid-ing their lives are not at risk at home.About 1,700 police officers

Five security personnel have also been injured since launching the opera-tions, Asir said, adding the crackdown against Taliban in Darqad district is in full swing and would last until the government controlled the district.Units of police backed by the

rights activists on Saturday reaffirmed their support for the meeting which is sched-uled to take place in Islama-bad on Monday. But they called on the Afghan govern-ment to consider what is best for the nation and not forget the gains the country has made since the fall of the Tali-ban regime in 2011.Referring to a nationwide survey conducted by the committee on peace, activists said that people across the country hope that the Islama-bad meeting will help broker peace talks with the hardline movement. Activists from

at home, Price said in a statement.Moreover, the State De-partment will establish the Global Engagement Center, which “will allow us to place an intensified focus on empowering and enabling the voices of in-ternational partners, gov-ernmental and non-gov-ernmental.”The Obama Administra-

were on the streets of Co-logne as protesters, includ-ing members of the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement, waited for official permis-sion to march through the city. At a separate left-wing protest, more than 2,000 mostly women gathered close to the train station where many of the attacks, including muggings and sexual assaults, happened.“No ...(More on P4)...(11)

army and National Directo-rate for Security launched well-coordinated operations against Taliban positions in Darqad district at 02:00 a.m. local time Saturday to recap-ture the district which bor-ders Tajikistan.Taliban militants who over-run ...(More on P4)...(12)

numerous civil society insti-tutions and rights protection bodies voiced their support over the recent diplomatic outreach aimed at easing tensions between Kabul and Islamabad and over the pro-posed peace talks.However, activists made it clear that the public’s wishes should be taken into consider-ation during any negotiations with the Taliban.“Recently we recommended a ten article peace roadmap to government including a 34-item peace proposal package to government. We also gath-ered ...(More on P4)...(14)

tion, particularly since the White House Summit on Countering Violent Ex-tremism in February 2015, has focused on strength-ening its effort to prevent violent extremists from radicalizing and mobiliz-ing recruits at home and abroad, the statement said.“The horrific attacks in Par-is and San Bernardino this ...(More on P4)...(10)

MAINZ/COLOGNE - Mi-grants who commit crimes should lose their right to asylum, German chancellor Angela Merkel said on Satur-day, toughening her tone as crowds gathered in Cologne angered by mass assaults on women on New Year’s Eve.Nearly two dozen asylum seekers were among those suspected of carrying out the attacks, police said this week, heightening tensions over immigration and fuel-ling criticism of Merkel’s re-fusal to place a limit on the numbers of migrants enter-ing the country.“The right to asylum can be lost if someone is convicted on probation or jailed,” Mer-kel said after a meeting of the leadership of her Christian Democrats (CDU) party.“Serial offenders who re-peatedly rob or repeatedly

TALUQAN - Afghan gov-ernment forces operations to recapture the strategically im-portant Darqad district along the border with Tajikistan have claimed the lives of 17 Taliban militants including Darqad’s shadowy governor Mullah Basir on Saturday, police said.“Since launching the opera-tions to recapture Darqad district, 17 rebels including Taliban shadowy district governor Mullah Basir nick-name Mullah Kamal have been killed,” police spokes-man for Takhar province, Ab-dul Khalil Asir told Xinhua.

KABUL - Rights activists on Saturday called on the Af-ghan government to consider the gains the nation has made over the last 15 years when drawing up the framework for peace talks with the Tali-ban.Calls for the protection of women rights and other achievements were renewed as Pakistan prepares to host a quadrilateral meeting be-tween Afghanistan, Pakistan, US and China on Monday. The aim of the meeting is to map out the way forward for peace talks with the Taliban.Civil society advocates and

KABUL - The United States Army announced Friday that 1,800 soldiers from two stateside installations would deploy in the coming months to Iraq and Afghanistan.About 1,300 soldiers from Fort Campbell, Kentucky will deploy to Iraq in the spring, while about 500 soldiers from Fort Drum, New York will travel to Afghanistan later this winter on regular rotations to replace outgo-ing units, according to an Army statement.In Afghanistan, 2-87 Infantry will join the 10th Mountain Division headquarters, which is serving at Bagram Air Field as the National Support Element.“Our nation’s Army continues to call upon Mountain soldiers to serve around the world in places such as Afghanistan due to their proven record of high standards, mission success and selfless service,” said Maj. Gen. Jeffrey L. Bannister, commander of the 10th Mountain Division.There are about 9,800 U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan primarily to train and advise Afghan forces and conduct some counterter-rorism operations. President Barack Obama announced in October he would keep 5,500 troops in Afghanistan into 2017, but some members of Congress have called for a larger U.S. presence amid recent gains by the resur-gent Taliban.The top American commander in Afghani-stan, Army Gen. ...(More on P4)...(13)

KABUL - Public Health Minister Ferozud-din Feroz has narrowly escaped a possible HIV infection after he was attacked with a syringe by a drug addict, the officials said Sunday.There are growing fears of rapid HIV infec-tion spread among the drug addicts in the country as syringes are mostly used by the addicts to inject the drugs into their bodies.However, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) officials have said the minister has undergone tests which have proven that he was not infected in the attack.The officials further added that the minister was on a site visit when he under attack by a drug addict who inserted the syringe in the shoulder of the minister.According to the officials, the attack on Mr. Feroz was pre-planned by those who are opposing to shift the drug addicts from the city to a rehabilitation center.This comes as major campaign was launched by the government late in the month of De-cember last year to collect and shift drug addicts from Kabul city and shift them to a former NATO base.The Ministry of Counter-Narcotics of Af-ghanistan in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Economy allocated parts of Camp Phoenix for the treatment of drug addicts. (KP)

WASHINGTON - Facing increased threat of violent extremism at home, the United States on Friday unveiled new initiatives to fight homegrown violent extremists, including estab-lishing a task force and a global engagement center.The initiatives, announced by Ned Price, spokesperson of the White House’s Na-tional Security Council, are intended “to improve our international and domestic efforts to counter violent extremism.”The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice will establish the Counter-ing Violent Extremism Task Force, a new organization that will integrate and har-monize domestic efforts on fighting violent extremism

target by six billion afghanis as a result of the commitment held out to the global commu-nity and International Mon-etary Fund to combat corrup-tion.Senator Corker appreciated the government’s efforts for administrative reforms which he called the key to strength-ening Afghanistan’s credibil-ity.President Ashraf Ghani also met the visiting delegation and discussed cooperation between the two countries in different areas, particularly in battling terrorism and equip-ping Afghan security forces. (Pajhwok)proving security in the country. Hakimi said the government could overshoot its tax collection