More U.S. troops requires more rescue prep
WASHINGTON, March 25 (UPI) -- An additional 17,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan will hike the chance of casualties and the difficulty of rescue and recovery efforts, military officials said.
Dutch army Maj. Gen. Mart de Kruif, who leads coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, said the additional U.S. troops will lead "to what I think is going to be a significant spike in incidents," USA Today reported Wednesday.
Search-and-rescue crews face difficult terrain when trying to evacuate wounded soldiers or retrieve the dead and likely will see more difficulty in carrying out their missions with the additional U.S. troops, military leaders said. The Pentagon in January ordered 10 more rescue helicopters to Afghanistan.
The mountainous terrain and sometimes treacherous weather conditions complicate recovery of troops killed in combat, said U.S. Air Force Col. Lee dePalo, commander of the 563rd Rescue Group at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.
But recovering the bodies means insurgents lose a propaganda tool by holding a dead soldier's remains.
"We deny that, and we provide closure to the families that I think is incredibly important," dePalo told USA Today.
In Afghanistan, statistics indicate more than 420 U.S. troops have died in combat.
Seoul, China meet on N. Korea missile
SEOUL, March 25 (UPI) -- South Korea told China Wednesday it strongly opposes plans by North Korea to carry out a rocket launch set for next month, sources say.
An unnamed South Korean defense official said Gen. Chen Bingde, Chief of Staff of China's People's Liberation Army, met his South Korean counterpart Wednesday in an effort to defuse tensions over the rocket launch, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.
While Pyongyang says the launch, which has been scheduled for between April 4-8, is a communications satellite, others believe that is a cover to test its Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile, which is capable of reaching Alaska.
The anonymous defense official told Yonhap that South Korea would again tell the Chinese delegation it was opposed to the rocket launch and appeal to China as North Korea's top benefactor to do what it can to halt the firing.
"We plan to relay to the Chinese delegation our demand that North Korea heed international warnings and halt its preparations for the launch," the official said.
U.S., Pakistan said in hectic negotiations
WASHINGTON, March 25 (UPI) -- Pakistan and the United States are engaging in a hectic round of negotiations as Washington prepares to unveil a new strategy for the country, sources say.
As the Obama administration and Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, put the finishing touches on a redefinition of bilateral relations between Washington and Islamabad, close consultations between national leaders were said to be under way, the English-language Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported Wednesday.
The newspaper quoted an unnamed diplomatic observer saying the point of talks was to make sure there were no surprises when U.S. officials outline their strategic review of Pakistan's security problems and its use by Taliban militants to launch attacks against U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
The sources told Dawn Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, was summoned to Islamabad during the weekend, adding the Obama administration had indicated it wanted to brief senior Pakistani officials before announcing the new policy to avoid misunderstandings.
U.S. officials are also reportedly looking to reach out to opposition Pakistani politicians such as former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as well as consulting with President Asif Ali Zardari.
Rebels: Shariah not coming fast enough
MINGORA, Pakistan, March 25 (UPI) -- "Un-Islamic" laws are still being followed in an area of Pakistan where the government has agreed to enforce shariah, or religious law, backers say.
The leader of the rebel group Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi, or the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law, said Tuesday he would close down his "peace camp" in Pakistan's Swat region if the Northwest Frontier Province government didn't move more quickly to follow through on its agreement to enforce shariah in neighboring Malakand, the English-language Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.
"Judges have been replaced with Qazis (shariah judges). They are reforming the society, but are unable to issue orders or to get their decisions implemented," group founder Maulana Sufi Mohammad told reporters.
The group, a hard-line Islamic fundamentalist group, and the provincial government signed a deal last month to enforce sharia and repeal laws deemed "repugnant to Islam" in the Malakand region in exchange for implementing a peace accord, the newspaper said.
Hamas seeks charges against PM
GAZA, March 25 (UPI) -- A threat by the militant group Hamas to prosecute Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad won't help reconciliation talks, analysts say.
Leaders of Hamas, which controls Gaza, announced Tuesday they would seek to bring charges against Fayad, a member of the rival Fatah Palestinian faction based in the West Bank, for alleged "collaboration" with Israel and "squandering" taxpayer money, The Jerusalem Post reported.
The threat comes as talks for a Palestinian national unity government have broken down in Egypt and a restart date is uncertain, the newspaper said.
Fayad has already submitted his resignation to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in an effort to pave the way for reconciliation deal and is planning to step down at the end of this month, observers said.
The talks have been derailed by continuing disagreements over the political platform of a prospective unity government, the reconstruction of the Palestinian security forces and over how a president would be elected, the Post reported.
Experts: Indonesia vote may bring trouble
JAKARTA, March 25 (UPI) -- Upcoming elections in Indonesia will likely be messy and chaotic, with a possibility of violence if people reject the results, experts say.
Analysts speaking Wednesday at the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club said the April 9 elections, which include several court-ordered re-votes of local gubernatorial and regency elections that were demanded by losing candidates, are likely to be marked by confusion and possibly violence, The Jakarta Post reported.
"The Constitutional Court has to be prepared with so many petitions for a re-vote," Chusnul Mar'iyah of the University of Indonesia and a former member of the General Election Commission, told the gathering, placing blame for potential trouble on the jurists for acting outside their authority.
Jeffrey Winters, an Indonesia expert from Northwestern University in the United States, said controversy could also erupt in the aftermath of the election over voter registries, with candidates likely to claim that the voter totals were too high, the Post reported.
He reportedly told attendees that if people believe the voters' lists had been tampered with, "there will be violence."
