Time is like a sword. If you do not cut it, it will cut you.

Kabul bomb kills seven Afghans, some NATO troops

KABUL: A suicide car bomb in the Afghan capital Tuesday killed seven Afghan civilians and some NATO troops, and wounded more than 50 people in an attack two days before elections, officials said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast and a volley of rockets fired into the heavily secured capital, one of which an official said struck the outskirts of the compound of President Hamid Karzai but caused no damage.
The latest attacks come two days after a deadly suicide car bombing outside the main NATO base in Kabul and follow repeated Taliban threats of new assaults in a bid to sabotage presidential and provincial council elections on Thursday.
The explosion was near a US military base on a key road leading east out of Kabul, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said.
"There have been some ISAF soldiers killed and several wounded," an ISAF press officer said.
On the Afghan casualties, public health ministry spokesman Ahmad Farid Rahid said: "Seven people have been martyred and 51 have been wounded."
"The dead and wounded have been evacuated to three hospitals," he said. The dead were all civilians, he said.
Witnesses said they saw about a dozen people, blackened by burn injuries and bloodied from the blast site.
It caused minor damage to a UN vehicle and slightly wounded three Afghan staff working for the United Nations, spokesman Aleem Siddique said.
An Afghan man, whose clothes were covered in blood, told reporters at the scene that his son had been hurt.
"All of a sudden I heard a big explosion. I don't know what caused it. I saw my son wounded -- I had to rush him out of the area. I didn't have much time to look around and see what happened," he said, without giving his name.
About a dozen ambulances raced to evacuate casualties from the site, which is on a road leading east out of the city that is used regularly by international soldiers.
"It was a suicide attack... targeting a supply convoy of foreign forces on the Bagram road," Kabul criminal investigation police chief Sayed Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada told reporters at the scene.
"Since the bombing took place in an area where there is a bazaar, most of the casualties are civilians," he added.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the blast in a telephone call to a French news agency.
Ziarat Gul, in his 30s, had head injuries from glass shattered by the blast.
"I was sitting in my office and all of a sudden all the windows broke. I left," he said. The explosion comes two days before millions of Afghans are to vote in key presidential and provincial council elections, which have been overshadowed by Taliban threats to disrupt the polls and a surge in recent violence.
Saturday's blast outside the main NATO base in Kabul was the first suicide attack in the heavily secured city since February. Rockets have been fired into the city regularly but seldom cause much damage or casualties.
However, a rocket that struck the outer area of Karzai's heavily secured compound early Tuesday rattled the city.
Karzai's chief spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, said the explosion was small and had caused no damage or casualties.
The president had gone about his daily business, Hamidzada said, adding he hoped Afghan voters would have the same attitude and not allow the threat of attack to deter them from voting on Thursday.
Karzai is the frontrunner in the presidential election and is widely expected to win a second term in office, although he may be forced into a second round run-off if he fails to secure an outright majority.

Hekmatyar urges war against U.S

PESHAWAR: Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of America's most-wanted men, has urged his compatriots to rise up against the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.
In a statement, Hekmatyar calls for an Afghan uprising in a competitive spirit with Iraq.
Afghans "like Iraqi mujahedeen, will choose the way of uprising against the occupiers," said the statement.
Hekmatyar heads Hezb-e-Islami (search), an Islamic guerrilla faction that fought invading Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. He has reportedly joined forces with the Taliban against the U.S.-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Pakistan detains top Taliban spokesman: officials

Peshawar:Pakistan's military arrested the top Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar in the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan, security and government officials said Tuesday.
"A very, very important militant has been arrested," said Major Fazal Ur Rehman, head of the military's media cell, declining to give the militant's identity ahead of a press conference at 11:00 am (0500 GMT.)
But government and military officials said the detainee was Maulvi Omar, the spokesman for Pakistan's feared Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) organization, led by Baitullah Mehsud, who was reported dead this month.
Rehman said the detainee would be presented at the press conference in the tribal Mohmand region, an area rife with militant activity.
As the official spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Omar frequently called journalists to claim responsibility for terrorist attacks in Pakistan.
Omar's capture was the second high-profile arrest of a senior Taliban figure this week.
On Monday night, police said they arrested a militant commander and close Mehsud aide who was being treated in a private hospital in Islamabad, the capital.
Militant commander Qari Saifullah, who also has links to al-Qaida terrorists, told police he had been wounded in an American missile strike in South Waziristan, said two police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Pakistan's military has been locked in a more than three-month battle with militants across swathes of the northwest, and operations have begun to move into the Taliban heartland in the semi-autonomous tribal belt.
In an apparent blow to the militants, Mehsud was this month reported killed in a U.S. drone missile strike in South Waziristan, although both countries have stopped short of confirming his death.

Al-Qaeda moves bases to remote areas in Pakistan: Obama

WASHINGTON: By moving forward in Iraq, the US has been able to refocus on the war against Al Qaeda and its extremist allies in the Afghanistan, Pakistan region, US President Barack Obama said on Monday.
“That is why I announced a new, comprehensive strategy in March. This strategy recognises that Al Qaeda and its allies had moved their base to the remote, Tribal Areas of Pakistan.”
The US president also said those who attacked America on September 11 were plotting to do so again. “If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which Al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defence of our people,” he said.

US reveals largest identity theft case ever

NEW YORK -The U.S. Justice Department reveals on Monday that 130 million credit card numbers have been stolen from corporate and social-networking websites in what it calls the largest hacking and identity theft case ever.
Three men were indicted on charges of being responsible for five corporate data breaches in a scheme in which the card numbers were stolen from Heartland Payment Systems, 7-Eleven Inc and Hannaford Brothers Co, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
The suspects also hacked two unidentified corporate victims, the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey said in the statement.
Prosecutors allege Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami, and two unnamed Russian coconspirators targeted large corporations by scanning the list of fortune 500 companies and exploring corporate websites before setting out to identify vulnerabilities.