No more peace talks, 'Mullah Radio' tells Pakistan

By Haji Mujtaba and Jibran Ahmed

MIRANSHAH/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Pakistani Taliban rejected the idea of peace talks with the government after electing hardline commander Mullah Fazlullah, whose men shot schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai last year, as their new leader on Thursday.

The rise of Fazlullah, known for his fierce Islamist views, by the Taliban Shura council follows the Killing of Hakimullah Mehsud, the previous leader or ameer, in a U.S. drone strike on November 1.

Mehsud and his allies had been tentatively open to the concept of ceasefire talks with the government, but Fazlullah's emergence as the new chief changes that picture.

"There will be no more talks as Mullah Fazlullah is already against negotiations with the Pakistan government," Shahidullah Shahid, a Taliban spokesman, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location in neighboring Afghanistan.

"All governments play double games with us. In the name of peace talks, they deceived us and killed our people. We are one hundred percent sure that Pakistan fully supports the United States in its drone strikes."

The Pakistani Taliban insurgency is fighting to topple Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government and impose Sharia law in the nuclear-armed nation.

Taliban leader hit by drone strikePlay video."

Attacks have been on the rise since Sharif came to power in May promising a negotiated end to violence, a concern for global powers already unnerved by the possible security implications of the withdrawal of most U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan in 2014.

No meaningful talks have taken place since Sharif's election and Fazlullah's rise could signal the start of a new period of uncertainty and violence in the already unstable region.

Speaking to Reuters, Shahid said the new ameer had taken over the decision-making process within the Taliban with immediate effect and would soon decide whether to avenge the death of Mehsud with a new campaign of bombings and killings.

MULLAH RADIO

Nicknamed Mullah Radio for his fiery Islamist radio broadcasts in Swat valley, Fazlullah is considered hardline even within the Pakistani Taliban movement itself.

Born in 1976, he gained prominence in 2004 when he set up an underground FM radio station in the deeply conservative Swat valley to promote fundamentalist and anti-Western ideas.

He and his fighters took over the valley in 2009 and imposed strict Islamic rule. Fazlullah opposes polio vaccinations which he has described as a Jewish and Christian conspiracy to harm Muslims, and ordered the closure of girls' schools.

Malala, who openly criticized the Taliban and campaigned for womens' right to education, is a symbol of everything he has been fighting against.

Outraged by the Taliban, the then-11-year-old kept a blog under a pen name and later launched a full-fledged campaign for girls' education.

Fazlullah's men shot and wounded her last year, instantly turning Malala into a global hero. She was airlifted to Britain for medical treatment and now lives with her family in the northern city of Birmingham. The Taliban have said it will kill her if she came back.

Fazlullah's troops melted away across the mountainous border into Afghanistan in 2009 after a military offensive by the Pakistan army which now controls the area. Fazlullah is believed to be in Nuristan province.

(This version of the story removes double time reference 'on Thursday' in first paragraph)

(Writing by Maria Golovnina, additional reporting by Saud Mehsud and Mehreen Zahra-Malik; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that he "utterly rejects" the emerging nuclear deal between western powers and Iran, calling it a "bad deal" and promising that Israel will do everything it needs to do to defend itself.

Netanyahu's tough talk came a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is mediating negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, sharply criticized Israeli policies in an interview broadcast on Israeli TV. A photo op with the two did not take place as scheduled Friday.

Kerry criticized Israeli settlement building and warned violence could erupt if peace talks fail in the interview.

Israel believes Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon and says international pressure should be stepped up, not eased, in order to force Iran to dismantle its nuclear program. Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran, unilaterally if necessary, if he concludes that diplomatic pressure on Iran has failed.

He spoke before meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry returned to Tel Aviv from Jordan to speak with Netanyahu before flying to Switzerland to participate in nuclear talks with Iran.

Kerry's decision to fly to Geneva comes after signs that global powers and Iran were close to a deal that would cap some of Iran's suspected nuclear program in exchange for limited relief from economic sanctions.

"I understand the Iranians are walking around very satisfied in Geneva as well they should because they got everything and paid nothing," Netanyahu told reporters.

"They wanted relief of sanctions after years of grueling sanctions, they got that. They paid nothing because they are not reducing in any way their nuclear enrichment capability. So Iran got the deal of the century and the international community got a bad deal," Netanyahu said.

"This is a very bad deal and Israel utterly rejects it. Israel is not obliged by this agreement and Israel will do everything it needs to do to defend itself and defend the security of its people," he said.

In a signal to Kerry, following his remarks about Israeli policy in Thursday's broadcast; Netanyahu added "That is true also of our negotiations with the Palestinians."

"I will never compromise on Israel's security and our vital interests, not in the face of any international pressure. I think the pressure has to be put where it belongs, that is on the Palestinians who refuse to budge. But I think in any case, no amount of pressure will make me or the Government of Israel compromise on the basic security and national interests of the State of Israel," Netanyahu said.

A State Department official said only that Kerry and Netanyahu met one on one for two hours and 15 minutes.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed Kerry would go Geneva to meet Friday with the European Union's top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, and Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran to be an existential threat, citing hostile Iranian rhetoric toward the Jewish state, Iran's missile capabilities and its support for violent Middle Eastern militant groups.

Netanyahu says pressure must be maintained until Iran halts all enrichment of uranium, a key step in producing a nuclear weapon; removes its stockpile of enriched uranium from the country; closes suspicious enrichment facilities and shutters a facility that could produce plutonium, another potential gateway to nuclear arms.

Despite Netanyahu's warnings, there are growing signs that any international deal with Iran will fall short of his demands.

The Iranian nuclear program will likely to dominate Friday's meeting, overshadowing Kerry's efforts to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

A senior state department official said that Kerry has been open to the possibility of traveling to Geneva for the talks "if it would help narrow differences."

The official said Ashton asked Kerry to attend the latest round of discussions. The official called the negotiations "a complex process" and said Kerry was "committed to doing anything he can" to help.

Israel furious over potential Iran nuke deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns John Kerry against giving Tehran the "deal of the century."
Vows Israel will defend itself

• by ThinkProgress
• November 7, 2013

UN says meth boom sweeping Asia

Bangkok (AFP) - The United Nations sounded the alarm Friday over record seizures of methamphetamine, with the drug flooding streets and clubs in Asia and enticing a new generation of users.

Last year 227 million methamphetamine pills were seized in East and Southeast Asia -- up 59 percent from the year before, and a more than seven-fold increase compared with 2008, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

"If you look at the five year trends, since 2008 the seizures have increased pretty exponentially," said UNODC regional analyst Shawn Kelley, with data suggesting the trend continued into 2013.

He said the "huge spike" was due to increased efforts by law enforcement agencies as well as soaring production in Myanmar and an increase in the smuggling of drugs into Asia from other regions.

Seizures of potent crystal meth also increased, jumping 12-fold in Myanmar, 10-fold in Brunei, 91 percent in Hong Kong, 75 percent in both Indonesia and Cambodia, and 33 percent in Japan.

Methamphetamine can be ingested, smoked, snorted and injected.

In its pill form -- known in Thailand as "yaba", which means "crazy medicine" -- it is used both as a party drug and pick-me-up for low paid workers with long hours.

View gallery."

An undated photo, received on February 28, 2013, shows the Australian Federal Police's largest ever …

Prices range from $3 a pill in Laos up to $20 in Singapore.

In China, methamphetamine is the second most popular drug of choice among the country's more than two million registered users, after heroin.

It is ranked as the top drug of concern in Japan, where an estimated 0.2 percent of secondary school students have used meth, according to one government survey.

Between them China, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos seized 99 percent of all yaba in East and Southeast Asia last year, according to the UNODC report.

All of those countries showed significant increases on a year earlier, with Thai authorities netting 95.3 million pills -- a 93 percent increase -- while Chinese seizures rose 25 percent to 102.2 million, and Myanmar's more than tripled to 18.2 million.

Much of the methamphetamine seized in Thailand is thought to be produced in neighbouring Myanmar.

View gallery."

An Indonesian customs official inspect packs of heroin and crystal methamphetamine seized from an In …

Before the country began opening up to the world under a new reformist government in 2011, it was believed that rebels were increasing drug production to buy weapons amid tensions with the then-ruling junta.

"But now it's still going on," said Kelley, despite ceasefire deals between Myanmar's new quasi-civilian government and many of the armed ethnic minority groups.

The drug is mostly made in isolated mobile laboratories hidden in the forests of Shan State in eastern Myanmar, which is also the second-largest global source of opium after Afghanistan.

But at least one major "fairly sophisticated large lab" was discovered in 2012, with quantities of meth suggesting "industrial production", said Kelley.

He added that some well-organised groups had financing from outside the country -- with Myanmar's meth labs relying on precursor chemicals smuggled from China and India.

'Promotional sales' to attract users

The UN estimates that heroin and methamphetamine generate sales of at least $30 billion in Southeast Asia and China annually. Methamphetamine is thought to account for around $16.5 billion of that -- a sum that exceeds the annual economic output of Cambodia.

In Thailand the use of methamphetamine has become a major public health issue, said Kelley, with signs that traffickers are pushing "promotional sales" of the more potent crystal meth to develop the market.

Thailand saw a 63 percent increase in people admitted for treatment for yaba last year, to 245,920. The number of those given help for crystal meth, while still smaller at 16,500, was more than double the previous year.

Drug use among young people aged 15 to 24, manual labourers and farmers has "increased significantly", according to the UNODC report.

Secondary school and university students were also increasingly using both yaba and crystal meth -- also known as "ice".

The UN said methamphetamine use in China, the other major market for the drug in pill form, was increasing "particularly among young drug users".

In Myanmar, where heroin remains the chief drug of concern, there are rising fears over domestic use of meth, with the UN report highlighting increasing use in cities across the country and among young people.

Asia's sweeping drug epidemic

• by Kristina Chew
• November 7, 2013