AP, Kabul
Afghanistan’s president called for a “holy war” against corruption Tuesday, one of the major problems facing his war-torn country as he tries to improve its economy and create jobs.
Ashraf Ghani, who has been in power almost a year, described corruption as a “cancerous lesion” threatening the survival of the state.
Speaking at a Kabul high school, he said graft in government contracts, land grabbing and illegal drug production and trafficking are major problems.
Xi calls Bashir ‘old friend’
AFP, Beijing
China’s President Xi Jinping on Tuesday welcomed Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir – who has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court – as an “old friend of the Chinese people”.
Bashir is one of the foreign heads of state attending a huge military parade on Thursday to mark the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. Major western leaders have shunned the event.
N Korea warns south over twisting peace deal
AFP, Seoul
North Korea on Wednesday accused the South of misrepresenting their agreement to defuse tensions and warned the hard-won deal was being undermined by claims Pyongyang had made an apology for border landmine blasts.
The explosions maimed two South Korean soldiers on patrol last month and triggered a crisis that brought the rivals to the brink of armed conflict.
