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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FaultLine who wrote (11027)	11/21/2001 4:53:05 AM
From: SirRealist	Respond to of 281500

Taliban opposition plan UN meeting Fundamentalist militia said ready to hand over Kunduz By Allen Wan, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 4:32 PM ET Nov. 20, 2001 WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) - As the beleaguered Taliban mull an ultimatum to surrender the northern stronghold of Kunduz or face possible annihilation, their opposition is moving ahead with plans for a new government in Afghanistan without the fundamentalist militia. FRONT PAGE NEWS Rising banks boost Tokyo stocks Microsoft cuts profit view, citing settlement charge Big-cap tech decline hobbles Nasdaq; Dow also struggles Oil stocks, crude prices rally Taliban-opposition plan UN-led meeting without group Sign up to receive FREE e-newsletters: Get the latest news 24 hours a day from our 100-person news team. The United Nations has agreed to supervise power-sharing talks among the various Afghan ethnic groups in a meeting that could take place as early as Monday in Germany, published reports say. The Northern Alliance, which has recaptured large swathes of the country from the Taliban over the last few weeks, will send a delegation to Germany. Representatives from the main Pashtun ethnic group as well those from other major factions that make up Afghanistan will attend. Former king Zahir Shah, who has been living in exile in Rome, will send a representative, the reports said. One group that probably won't make it is the Taliban, despite calls from the Pakistani government to include "moderate Taliban" in any future government, the Associated Press reported. The Northern Alliance has given the Taliban three days to surrender from its stronghold of Kunduz in the north or face assault, it said. Another report said that the Taliban has agreed on the conditions for surrender. Radio Russia reported that Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum of the Northern Alliance and the Taliban have agreed on the conditions for the handover of Kunduz to alliance forces. Foreign fighters loyal to bin Laden -- mainly Arabs, Chechens and Pakistanis -- have reportedly been most resistant to the idea of surrender. But with the U.S. building up its ground forces to its highest levels since the start of the war, the Taliban is losing its will to fight. A Northern Alliance commander claimed that the Taliban has been slaughtering hundreds of its own fighters in recent days to prevent them from giving up. The Marines are coming for bin Laden And now, up to 1,600 U.S. Marines are reportedly preparing to join U.S. commandos in Afghanistan as early as this week in a final drive to hunt down suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. The USS Bataan, a marine amphibious assault ship, joined the USS Peleliu this weekend in the Arabian Sea, each carrying 600 to 800 Marine infantry troops trained for commando operations, USA Today reported, citing a U.S. defense official. The Marines will join as many as 500 special operations forces, who are already in Afghanistan blowing up bridges and setting up roadblocks to prevent bin Laden and his al-Qaida allies from fleeing the country. In other developments: Traces of anthrax have been found in the office mailrooms of Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the Associated Press said, citing an unidentified congressional official. So far, anthrax traces have been found in 14 senators' offices. Also, a sample taken from a plastic evidence bag containing a still-unopened letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy contains at least 23,000 anthrax spores, enough for more than two lethal doses, the AP quoted a federal law enforcement official as saying. -------------- Gee, Leahy, Daschle, Dodd, Kennedy..... do I detect a pattern here? Obviously a zealot to the right of Hitler.... that, to me, is proof it's a US citizen or group. Al Qaida would far more likely target pro-biz or pro-military hawks.