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First Olympic medal for Afghanistan |
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Afghanistan's Rohullah Nikpai won his country's first medal at an Olympics upsetting world flyweight champion Juan Antonio Ramos of Spain to take bronze in the men's 58-kg taekwondo category.
Mexico's Guillermo Perez triumphed over Yulis Gabriel Mercedes of the Dominican Republic in a dramatic final to win gold in Beijing.
Many Afghans were not immediately aware of Nikpai's win because power is intermittent and only some households have access to cable television in the strife-plagued country.
But a live broadcast of the bout was relayed by a private television station and dozens of people who managed to watch phoned in after Nikpai's victory.
"It's a time of big celebrations for all of us. I'm so happy that despite the war, lack of sports facilities and training Nikpai managed to secure a medal," shopkeeper Khair Mohammad said.
Afghanistan was suspended from the Olympic movement in 1999 because the-then ruling Taliban was not internationally recognised and did not allow the participation of female athletes.
The country missed Sydney 2000 but was allowed to compete in Athens 2004 when it did send female athletes.
Hero's welcome
In his bronze medal bout, Nikpai stayed cool and grew in confidence, playing off a supportive crowd and burying the Spaniard in the third round.
He fell to his knees after the referee called time and wept after embracing his coaches.
Nikpai is sure of a hero's welcome when he returns home.
The head of a local welfare organisation had already promised rewards for Afghan medal winners, with $10,000 for a bronze.
Afghanistan's previous best finish was a fifth place in wrestling at the Tokyo Games in 1964.
"I did not watch the game, but heard about it," said Taj Mohammad Ahmazada, head of archives at Afghan National Radio.
"It is indeed a big honour and a matter of great happiness for all of Afghanistan for this is the first time an Afghan athlete has managed to win a medal."
Gold for Mexico
With neither fighter able to score in extra time in the gold medal fight, referees awarded the match to Perez for attacking the most after a breathtaking exchange of aerial kicking skills.
Exhausted, both taekwondo-jins unleashed a series of desperate lunges to land the killer blow, but the deadlock remained at the end of three minutes of extra time.
Referees handed the match to Perez who screamed at the heavens before embracing Mercedes.
Athens champion Chu Mu-Yen of Taiwan recovered from his shock quarter-final loss to Mercedes to beat Chutchawal Khawlaor of Thailand 4-1 in the other bronze decider
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Afghanistan risks losing support |
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"We have saved this country from another civil war and people from starving," Afghan president Hamid Karzai told Spiegel magazine last month. "... there are new roads, the first students received their degrees from Kabul University a few days ago. That is great!"
Yes, it is. But the endemic incompetence and double-dealing that plagues Afghan state institutions is not. It is dangerous. Unchecked, it will steadily erode international support for Afghanistan's reconstruction, to the point where foreign troops, including Canada's, will leave. Were that to happen, Karzai's government would not likely last long.
How immediate a threat is this? Right now, not very. NATO has said it is in Afghanistan for the long haul. Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama has signaled this will change under the next U.S. administration.
But that does not absolve the Afghan government of responsibility for putting its house in order. Karzai has been at this for a while now. It was back in November of 2002 that he launched his first high-profile "purge" of corrupt officials.
And yet today, in 2008, it emerges that a massive jail break from Kandahar's biggest prison, was likely an inside job. A gaggle of senior Afghan security officials are being investigated for complicity in the jail break.
It doesn't end there. The governor of Kandahar, Assadullah Khalid, has been accused of being personally involved in torture -- a claim he denies. Ahmed Wali Karzai, the head of Kandahar's provincial council and also the president's brother, has been accused of involvement in the opium trade. This, too, the Karzais deny.
At the same time, the Taliban insurgency shows no signs of cooling. On the contrary, the number of insurgent attacks have increased sharply this year. Ordinary Afghans who back the Taliban often cite corruption in the Karzai government as their reason.
There is no standing still. Afghanistan will move forward, or it will move back. Karzai needs to do more to make sure it moves forward. Or, he will lose the unwavering international support that he has so far enjoyed. |
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NWFP govt demands Abaseen TV feasibility report |
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PESHAWAR: The NWFP government has demanded that the federal government launch Pashto TV channel Abaseen feasibility report for which was forwarded to the federal government a year ago, officials sources have told Daily Times.
Feasibility report for the TV channel was sent to Prime Minister Secretariat by the Ministry of Information in 2007, Pakistan Television (PTV) sources said.
Former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, they said, was going to launch the Pashto channel for NWFP and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) population, but some hidden hands played their role and forced the previous government for not launching the channel.
The government is in dire need of a Pashto TV channel to effectively communicate its policy on war on terrorism to Pashtun population. It also wants to counter propaganda by satellite channels from Afghanistan through a TV channel, the sources said, adding that the channel can play a significant role in establishing peace in FATA.
The government has taken notice of the delay in the launch of the channel and efforts are afoot to start it at the earliest, said the sources.
The aim of the project, they said, is to counter the Afghan governments anti-Pakistan propaganda and to convey its (Pakistani governments) policy on war on terror to FATA and NWFP population.
NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, when contacted, said that the province has forwarded its demand for launching the Pashto TV channel to the federal government.
He said that the provincial government will take this initiative with its own limited resources if the federal government further delayed the project.
The minister said that it would be an injustice on part of the federal government with the Frontier government if it did not launch the channel within weeks. Work had been completed for launching of the channel.
But unknown hidden hands played their role and stopped the channels launch, the minister said, adding the channel has become a dire need of the government to convey its message to illiterate population who are in majority.
Earlier, the government had planned to launch the channel from Peshawar on August 14 the last year, but it was delayed due to unknown reasons.
PTV officials told Daily Times that plan to launch the Pashto TV channel was approved a year ago and it was the prime minister who had given the go-ahead in this regard.
The officials said that a state-of-the-art studio and master control room had been set up specifically for Abaseen TV. PTV Peshawar centre had also put the up-linking facility in place so that transmission could reach the audience through 13 boosters across the NWFP and FATA, they added.
The sources said the 2003 project was shelved some time back and again caught attention of the authorities in 2007. akhtar amin |
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Afghan women protest anti-Islam film |
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KABUL, Afghanistan - About 70 Afghan women burned the Dutch and Danish flags during a demonstration Wednesday in the capital against an anti-Islam film and the reprinting of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.
The women chanted slogans against the two countries during the protest outside the Ministry of Information and Culture in Kabul. Most wore the all-covering blue burqa.
The women called on Danish and Dutch troops to leave Afghanistan and urged the Afghan government to shut down their embassies and cut diplomatic relations with the two countries.
The protesters were angered by the release last week of a 15-minute film by a Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilders, and the recent reprinting in Denmark of a cartoon showing the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.
The film "Fitna" - Arabic for ordeal - portrays Islam as targeting Western democracy with violence and has prompted denunciations in Muslim capitals and street protests in the Islamic world.
The film urges Muslims "to tear out the hateful verses from the Quran," the Islamic holy book.
Meanwhile, the Dutch Defense Ministry said there was no indication that a roadside bomb that wounded three Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan on Sunday was planted in retaliation for Wilders' movie.
The attack, which cost one soldier both legs, was "unfortunately not unusual" in nature, ministry spokesman Detlev Simons said.
The Site Intelligence Group said a statement posted on Web sites used by militants claimed the attack was in retribution for Wilders' film.
By AMIR SHAH
Associated Press Writer
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