The international military mission in Afghanistan has ‘no end point’, the head of Britain’s armed forces told a newspaper out Saturday.
   Sir Jock Stirrup’s comments come a week after Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, Britain’s top military commander in the war-torn country, said the public should not expect a ‘decisive military victory’ in Afghanistan.
   Stirrup, the chief of the defence staff, told The Times that in both Iraq and Afghanistan, British troops were on a ‘journey that never finishes’.
   The 58-year-old air chief marshal said the mission in Afghanistan, where Britain has 7,800 troops fighting Taliban insurgents, was not a win or lose battle.
   Britain’s 4,100 troops in Iraq are likely to leave within a year, Stirrup said, with Iraqi forces ‘very close’ to being able to handle the security situation alone.
   However, Afghanistan would be a longer operation, he warned.
   ‘Afghanistan is a very backward country... (militarily) it’s going to be some years before we finish that project,’ he said.
   Stirrup believes people should change their expectations of what can be achieved in Afghanistan.
   ‘We should avoid the use of words like ‘win’ and ‘lose’ in the context of Afghanistan. It’s not that sort of enterprise,’ he said.
   ‘It’s about helping the Afghans make progress in bringing their country towards the modern world. That’s a very, very long journey where success is measured in each year looking a bit better than the one before.’
   Stirrup does not believe a military victory could be declared in Iraq either.
   He said: ‘These things are more complicated... In both cases it’s a journey. If you’re talking about the development of a country, it’s a journey that never finishes. There’s no end point.’
   The aim of the mission in Afghanistan, as in Iraq, is to ‘help the government there extend governance to their people and to improve their lot.
   ‘This is a very complex issue. It has to do with administrative capacity. It has to do with executive capacity, it has to do with the criminal justice system, with police and infrastructure.
   ‘The armed forces are only there to create space within which political and other solutions can be delivered. They are a means to an end.’
   Asked if the war in Iraq has been successful, he replied: ‘We need to leave those judgments to historians.’
   Stirrup repeated his call for greater funding for Britain’s armed forces, despite the credit crunch.
   ‘The pre-requisite of a sound defence is a sound economy,’ he said. ‘But you have to continue protecting your interests. You can’t take a holiday from doing that.’
   He also said Princes William and Harry — both army officers — should be allowed to fight on the front line where possible.

Thousands of Christians were flocking to a small town in southern India on Saturday to celebrate the planned canonisation of a Roman Catholic nun, against a backdrop of the worst anti-Christian riots in decades.
   Sister Alphonsa will become India’s first woman saint when she is canonised by Pope Benedict at a special ceremony at the Vatican on Sunday.
   ‘It is a very important event and a big recognition for a woman born in a simple, ordinary Indian family,’ said Archbishop Raphael Cheenath in eastern Orissa state, where recent attacks on Christians have killed about 35 people.
   ‘At this time of suffering, it will help us and inspire us.’
   Tens of thousands of people were thronging a church in the town of Bharananganam in Sister Alphonsa’s native Kerala state ahead of the occasion.
   Special masses are being held in all Catholic churches in the state, where Saint Thomas, one of the 12 apostles, is believed to have arrived in 52 AD, bringing Christianity to India.
   Bells will ring and firecrackers will burst across Kerala when the Pope declares Sister Alphonsa a saint at 1.30pm (0800 GMT), said Father Dominic Vechoor, chancellor of Palai diocese, where she was a nun from 1927 till her death in 1946.
   The canonisation ceremony will be telecast live from the Vatican, where a large number of church and state officials and pilgrims from India are expected to be present.
   About 100,000 people are expected on Sunday when mass will begin at the crack of dawn, said Lukos Joseph, trustee of the Alphonsa Church in Bharananganam, where roads have been smoothed and the church and convent sport a fresh coat of paint.
   Christians make up 2.3 per cent of India’s billion-plus population, with Roman Catholics accounting for 70 per cent of the minority that is largely concentrated in the country’s south and northeast.
   Alphonsa will be India’s second saint after Gonsalo Garcia, of Portuguese parentage, who was canonized in 1862. Albanian-born Mother Teresa, who served the poor and destitute in Kolkata, was beatified in 2003, a first step to canonisation.
   Alphonsa Muttathupadathu was born in Kudamaloor, a village near Kottayam, and lost her mother at a young age. She was brought up by a maternal aunt, a strict, religious woman, according to a local resident who knew the family.

Things are bad back home, says school director Said Nabi Said, one of thousands of Pakistanis who have fled into Afghanistan to escape an offensive against al-Qaeda-linked militants.
   ‘The Pakistani government bombed us with airplanes and artillery strikes to punish the people of Bajaur for having good relations with the militants,’ said the 27-year-old just across the border in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province.
   ‘Since the start of the fighting two months ago, the situation is critical: thousands of houses have been destroyed and hundreds of civilian people, mostly women and children, were killed,’ he claimed.
   Around him in the village of Shultan, about 10 kilometres from Pakistan, several hundred people — not a woman among them — gathered for food handouts from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
   They are among about 20,000 people whom the United Nations refugee agency says have fled the Pakistan military operation against Taliban and al-Qaeda linked Islamic militants in the Bajaur tribal region.
   The exodus marks a reversal of history: about eight million Afghans fled mostly to Pakistan over the 30 years of conflict that destroyed their country, from Soviet invasion to civil war.
   Among this new batch of refugees are Afghans who lived in exile in Pakistan for more than 20 years. Islamabad has ordered all 60,000 Afghans in Bajaur to leave, saying they may be involved in militant activities.
   ‘I had a house and land in Afghanistan but I left for Pakistan in 1980,’ said 45-year-old Mohammad Hachem. ‘Now the house is destroyed, the land is not cultivated ... so I stayed in Pakistan.’
   Like the others, he is staying with relatives, in his case his parents. Whichever side of the border they come from, these people all belong to same Pashtun tribe, the Mamound.
   Kunar and Bajaur are separated only by two hours of twisting road through imposing mountains.
   In one Kunar district, Shigal, about two-thirds of the 11,000 newcomers are Pakistanis and one-third Afghans, according to Patrick Schwaerzler of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
   ‘We belong to the same nation, the same tribe,’ said Said.
   ‘Look at him,’ he said, pointing to another man. ‘He’s Afghan, I’m Pakistani, he’s my cousin. We have land both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. You want to separate us? It’s like splitting a body in two.’
   Hachem said many of the homes here were occupied by four to five families.
   ‘They share their food with us, but of course it is not much. They do their best... but what we have is not our own,’ he said.
   The refugees had asked the government to give them their own camp but there had been no reply, he said.
   All say they miss the much higher standard of living in Pakistan with modern roads, 24-hour power, schools and cheaper food.
   ‘In Bajaur, we were running shops, doing good business. Here we are helpless, we have no job, no money, no regular income,’ said 25-year-old shopkeeper Ghafoor, sporting an impressive beard like most men around him.

The Malaysian opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, has said that the country’s beleaguered Barisan Nasional government could fall by December, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
   Anwar has insisted he had won over enough defectors from the government to form a new administration. But an earlier self-imposed deadline of September 16 passed and his calls to recall parliament for a confidence vote were denied.
   The former deputy premier’s move to set a new deadline by the Eid al-Adha festival, which falls on December 8, comes after the prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, announced this week he will not stand in a party election next year, effectively handing over to his deputy Najib Razak.
   ‘We have built our base to go forward, if it (taking power) does not happen this week or next week, it can possibly happen before Eid al-Adha festival,’ Anwar said late on Friday in comments reported by the mass-selling Berita Harian newspaper
   ‘On the way it will be done, I can’t say. We will choose the peaceful way,’ Anwar, who was touring the northeastern state of Kelantan, said.
   Eid al-Adha is Islam’s most important feast at the end of the annual Haj pilgrimage. In mainly-Muslim Malaysia, the holiday coincides with the last few days parliament will be in session for the year.
   Anwar has to get 30 government MPs to walk over in order to have a majority in the 222-seat parliament. At present the opposition coalition, made of Anwar’s Keadilan party, the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia and the Democratic Action party, has 82 seats.
   ‘A momentum for a no-confidence vote could build up when parliament starts next week and this may happen during the debating of the budget or any bill for that matter,’ said Ginie Lim, spokesperson for Keadilan party.
   One of Malaysia’s best-known political figures, Anwar made world headlines when he was dismissed in the late 1990s by then premier Mahathir Mohamad and later imprisoned on what he says were trumped up sodomy and corruption charges.

Indian troops patrolled Kashmir’s streets Saturday, a day after the police shot dead two protesters during demonstrations against a visit by the prime minister, Manmohan Singh.
   The police fired bullets and tear gas on Friday to beat back thousands protesting premier Singh’s two-day visit to the revolt-hit Muslim majority region.
   Officials said two people were killed and 75 others, including 34 troopers, were hurt in the clashes in the Indian Kashmir summer capital of Srinagar, where Singh later held talks with local political leaders.
   ‘Both (protesters) were killed when security forces opened fire after tear gas shelling and baton charges proved ineffective to disperse stone-pelting mobs,’ said a police officer.
   Authorities Saturday deployed thousands of police and federal paramilitary soldiers amid simmering tensions as the prime minister flagged off the first train in the Kashmir Valley.
   The brief ceremony passed off peacefully as the venue was sealed off by hundreds of troops and special commandos.
   In downtown Srinagar, residents said they had been confined to their homes by rifle and baton-carrying federal policemen.
   ‘CRPF has imposed strict restrictions. We are not being allowed to come out of our homes,’ said Irshad Ahmed, referring to the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force.
   Ahmed said the situation was ‘very tense’ after the deaths of the protesters.
   Shops, schools and offices were closed in Srinagar following a strike call from a separatist committee that has spearheaded a resurgence of mass protests against Indian rule in the Kashmir Valley.

India’s prime minister Saturday launched Kashmir’s first train service, the fruit of an eight-year project that overcame tough terrain and rebel strife, on a visit overshadowed by violence.
   Security was tight as Manmohan Singh flagged off the first train to travel along a new 117-kilometre line which it is hoped will help transform the volatile region.
   ‘Our intention is that the future of Kashmir should be socially, economically and politically bright,’ he said in a pre-launch message.
   Singh launched the service from Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar, where two Muslims were killed Friday in police shootings on anti-India demonstrators protesting his visit to the revolt-hit region.
   Thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers patrolled Srinagar’s streets as shops, schools and offices shut down after separatists and trade unions called a two-day strike to protest the prime minister’s visit.
   The track links Baramulla town in the north with Qazigund in the south and should eventually be integrated into India’s massive national rail network. For the moment, only a 66-kilometre stretch is ready to be used.
   Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and federal railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav were also present during the tightly-guarded ceremony.
   Officials said the new Kashmir trains would be guarded against possible attacks by anti-Indian rebels.
   ‘We have set up a separate railway police force wing to guard the railway assets and passengers,’ the police chief Kuldeep Khuda said.

The Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, has allocated three important government ministries to his ZANU-PF party, angering the opposition and threatening a power-sharing deal.
   A government notice on Saturday showed Mugabe had allocated to his party the ministries for defence, home affairs — which is in charge of the police — and finance, a crucial portfolio for the resuscitation of Zimbabwe’s devastated economy.
   Mugabe and main opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai have been deadlocked over how to share key ministries and have agreed to call in Thabo Mbeki, the former South African president, to mediate the crisis.
   Mbeki’s spokesman said he would travel to Harare on Monday.
   The cabinet impasse has outraged Zimbabweans who had hoped a September 15 power-sharing agreement would end an economic meltdown.
   MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the opposition had not agreed to the allocation. ‘This is ZANU-PF’s arrogant wish list that puts the whole deal into jeopardy. It is unilateral, contemptuous and outrageous,’ he said.
   ‘The MDC totally and absolutely rejects this nonsense. ZANU-PF is taking people for a ride and there is a price for that.’
   The official Herald newspaper said no cabinet appointments would be made before Mbeki returns to Zimbabwe, but added there was disagreement only over the Ministry of Finance.
   Chamisa dismissed this as ‘ZANU-PF propaganda.’ Tsvangirai is set to hold a political rally in Harare on Sunday where he is expected to make his first public comments on Mugabe’s move.
   The power-sharing deal allows Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in 1980, to retain the presidency and chair the cabinet. Tsvangirai, as prime minister, will head a council of ministers supervising the cabinet.
   ZANU-PF will have 15 seats in the cabinet, Tsvangirai’s MDC 13 and a splinter MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara three posts, giving the opposition a combined majority.
   The government gazette said Mugabe’s ZANU-PF would be in charge of the foreign affairs, justice and the media and information ministries. The MDC would take the health, public service and constitutional and parliamentary affairs portfolios.
   Zimbabwe’s economy is imploding with official inflation at a new record 231 million percent, while shortages of food, foreign currency, water and electricity have hit many the hardest.

Russia carried out the first test launch on Saturday of a strategic missile that reached the equator in the Pacific Ocean, a navy spokesman said.
   The spokesman said the Sineva missile was launched from the nuclear-powered submarine, Tula, based in the Arctic Barents Sea during military exercises observed by the president, Dmitry Medvedev.
   ‘For the first time in the history of the Russian Navy the target of the missile was in an equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean rather than the Kura testing ground on the Kamchatka Peninsula,’ he said.
   The spokesman did not specify the area where Russia’s newest missile landed. The Sineva missile was introduced into Russia’s arsenal last year.
   ‘The area where the dummy warhead landed is legally part of an open sea and the area was closed to navigation and flights at the time of the exercise,’ he said.
   Medvedev’s predecessor Vladimir Putin made the
   revival of the armed forces, neglected for around 10 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, a symbol of Russia’s resurgence.
   Russia’s strategic bombers have restarted regular patrols over the Atlantic Ocean irking NATO and a group of the Northern Fleet ships is on its way to the Caribbean to take part in joint exercises with US foe Venezuela.

Democratic White House candidate Barack Obama on Saturday thanked his Republican rival John McCain for urging supporters to be respectful and stop hurling abuse at Obama at his rallies.
   ‘Now, I want to acknowledge that senator McCain tried to tone down the rhetoric yesterday in his town hall meeting and I appreciate his reminder that we can disagree while still being respectful of each other,’ Obama said.
   ‘I have said it before and I’ll say it again — senator McCain has served this country with honour and he deserves our thanks for that.’
   Obama said however that the McCain campaign was trying to divert attention from what he said was a ‘lack of answers’ on the economy with ‘nasty’ attacks.
   Obama spoke on the first of a blitz of four rallies in Philadelphia on Saturday, 24 days before the election.
   McCain on Friday called on his backers to tone it down, after crowds at his rallies have become increasing inflammatory shouting out ‘terrorist’ and ‘liar’ when Obama is mentioned. At one Florida rally, someone even shouted ‘kill him.’
   The US Secret Service said it was investigating the alleged death threat.
   ‘We want to fight, and I will fight, but we will be respectful. I admire senator Obama and his accomplishments and I will respect him,’ McCain told a Minnesota rally.
   ‘I want everyone to be respectful and let’s make sure we are, because that is the way that politics should be conducted in America,’ McCain said.

The founder of Aceh’s separatist rebel movement voiced his commitment to the troubled peace process Saturday as he made an emotional homecoming after nearly 30 years in exile.
   Free Aceh Movement founder Hassan di Tiro was greeted by thousands of cheering supporters and former guerrillas as he flew into the capital of the war-torn and tsunami-scarred Indonesian province for a two-week visit.
   Di Tiro, aged 83 and now a Swedish citizen, cried as he embraced his elderly sister and kissed the ground after being helped to kneel on an Islamic prayer mat on the tarmac at Banda Aceh’s airport.
   It is the first time he has set foot on home soil since he fled to Sweden in 1979, and comes as political tensions mount in the province ahead of elections in April.
   From the airport he went to the historic Grand Mosque in central Banda Aceh where up to 70,000 people, including many of his ex-guerrilla fighters, had gathered since Thursday to see their hero.
   An old and frail man of few words, he shouted ‘Allahu akbar (God is greater)’ and waved as the crowd surged forward to the stage on the football pitch-sized lawn in front of the black domes of the mosque.
   ‘Never before in the history of Aceh, as long as it has been under colonisation and occupation by foreign nations, have the people obtained freedom and peace throughout like this moment,’ di Tiro said in a speech read out by Malik Mahmud.
   Malik Mahmud was the chief GAM negotiator in a 2005 autonomy pact with Indonesia that saw the rebels give up their weapons in return for power-sharing.

Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan, who turned 66 Saturday, was undergoing medical tests after complaining of abdominal cramps, a hospital spokesman said, as fans feared for his health.
   ‘He has stomach pain and is undergoing tests,’ Mohan Rajan, from Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital, said by telephone. He described the actor’s condition as ‘stable’ but could not confirm one report that he had an incisional hernia.
   ‘We are giving him the best possible treatment. We understand the importance of Mr. Bachchan and his value to the nation,’ he added.
   Bachchan, who has superstar status in India, left his home in the northern Mumbai suburb of Juhu with his actor son, Abhishek, and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai, in an ambulance at lunchtime, an AFP photographer said.
   Huge crowds that had gathered outside his house to wish him happy birthday anxiously watched him leave, television pictures showed.
   Bachchan, wearing a brown-coloured woollen cap and blue ensemble, was spotted lying down inside the vehicle before being supported by Abhishek and another man as he walked into Nanavati Hospital, the photographer said.
   The film star’s secretary, Sunil Doshi, told the Times Now television channel that Bachchan ‘developed some kind of stomach cramp’ overnight, was taken for a CT scan and other tests and was now under observation.

Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider died in a road accident on Saturday, the country’s APA news agency reported quoting the police.
   ‘The governor of Carinthia and leader of the BZOe (Alliance for Austria’s Future) Joerg Haider died after a car accident early Saturday in Klagenfurt,’ the capital of his home state, the agency said.
   Haider, 58, was at the wheel of his official car in the south of Klagenfurt when it veered off the road for unknown reasons after overtaking another vehicle.
   He suffered serious head and chest injuries as his car flipped over several times and died shortly after the accident, APA added. He had been expected to attend a family celebration Saturday marking his mother’s 90th birthday.
   ‘For us this is the end of the world,’ BZOe deputy leader Stefan Petzner told APA.

The US government will announce Saturday it is removing North Korea from a terrorism blacklist following an agreement with Pyongyang on steps to verify its nuclear disarmament, a US official said.
   ‘We’ve agreed to a series of verification measures, and flowing from that we can now remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism,’ the administration official said.
   The agreement comes after ‘a last round’ of telephone consultations on Friday between the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and her partners in the six-party negotiations, another official said.
   The official did not specify to whom Rice spoke, but her partners in the negotiations are North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.He said the consultations were in addition to the telephone conversations Rice had with her Japanese, Chinese and South Korean counterpart earlier on Friday.