Afghan President Hamid Karzai has arrived in Pakistan to discuss the extradition of recently captured militant leaders.

Karzai arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday evening and will stay through Thursday. It is the Afghan leader’s first trip to Pakistan since he was re-elected in a disputed presidential election in August.

The Afghan president is to meet with top Pakistani officials including President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Karzai’s visit comes after Pakistani’s Inter-Services Intelligence reportedly arrested several Taliban leaders, including second-in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

However, a Pakistani court has restrained the government from extraditing militant leaders to any other country, raising the prospects of a new row between Kabul and Islamabad.

Iran’s president says the US must explain what its troops are doing in Afghanistan, as catching terrorists only requires intelligence work not military deployments.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the comment in a joint press conference with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Wednesday morning.

The Iranian president was responding to a question about the recent arrest of Jundallah leader Abdolmalek Rigi.

“Rigi is supported by the same people [and] governments, who have ill intentions for the government of Afghanistan and the Iranian nation. Rigi was a terrorist, who along with his associates killed more than 140 people,” said Ahmadinejad.

“Was Iran able to stop him? Yes, we arrested Rigi. Of course that was achieved with the cooperation of the Afghan and Pakistani intelligence services… but [in that process] Iran killed no innocent people,” he added.

“Is this not an example of the right way to fight terrorism? Why those who claim to be eager to fight terrorism are unsuccessful? Well the answer is that they themselves started terrorism and they want to fight it now. But they can’t.”

Ahmadinejad said that fighting terrorism is not possible with military surge, adding that terrorism can only be fought with intelligence cooperation.

Ahmadinejad was also asked about the significance of the simultaneous visit of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Afghanistan, to which he responded by asking the American official about the objectives of his trip.

“My question to Mr. Gates is what is he doing here? Your country is 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) away from the Middle East…Are you here to capture terrorists? Well if so it is clear what you must do, but if you are here to do something else, admit to it.”

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has called on the Afghan government to work harder in order to achieve a peace agreement with the Taliban.

Miliband’s comments, in a speech to be delivered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) later on Wednesday, reflect increasing recognition in the West that the Taliban militants who break ties to al Qaeda could play a role in the country’s future.

“Now is the time for the Afghans to pursue a political settlement with as much vigor and energy as we are pursuing the military and civilian effort,” Miliband said in excerpts published prior to his speech.

In a separate appearance in Boston on Tuesday night, Miliband said there was no longer a military solution for Afghanistan.

“The truth about an insurgency and a counterinsurgency is that it’s never ended militarily, it’s only ended politically,” he said at a public forum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

Nearly nine years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, it is not enough to explain to people why the war started, Miliband is to say in Wednesday’s speech.

“We need to set out how it will be ended,” he is expected say. “Afghanistan will never achieve a sustainable peace unless many more Afghans are inside the political system, and the neighbors are onside with the political settlement.”

The Labour government in the UK, which faces a struggle to win an election due in the next few months, needs to show it has an exit strategy for its 9,500 troops in Afghanistan.

Top Sunni Muslim cleric and grand imam of al-Azhar and Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi has passed away while on a visit in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh.

The 81-year-old Tantawi, the head of Egypt’s most prestigious seat of Islamic learning, suffered a heart attack early Wednesday while boarding a plane in the Saudi capital.

He was reportedly in Riyadh to attend the Saudi King Faisal awards ceremony.

The grand sheikh’s advisor, Abdullah el-Naggar, said the death was a surprise, saying that before leaving to Saudi Arabia the sheikh appeared to be in “excellent shape and health.”

Media reports quoted sources within Sheikh Tantawi’s office as saying that his deputy, Mohamed Wasel, was expected to temporarily take over leadership of the institution until the Egyptian president appoints a new head for the religious learning center.

Appointed in 1996, Grand Sheikh Tantawi was generally viewed as a relatively liberal cleric on issues such as the rights of women and was renowned for his opposition to female circumcision as a non-Islamic practice.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has left Tehran for Kabul leading a high-ranking delegation on his first official visit to Afghanistan since the re-election of Hamid Karzai as president.

The Iranian president was received in the Afghan capital by Vice President Muhammad Qasim Fahim. He is reportedly on his way to be officially welcomed by President Karzai in the presidential palace.

“Iran has innovative plans for resolving ongoing problems in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of the occupying forces from the country,” Ahmadinejad told reporters on Wednesday ahead of his departure.

He touched upon strong bonds between the two neighboring states and said Iran has always supported the Afghan people while they were facing woes.

Ahmadinejad said Iranian and Afghan authorities have been holding regular consultations, adding, “Afghan President Karzai travelled to Iran many times and I have paid a visit to Afghanistan.”

The Iranian president said he would hold talks with senior Afghan officials, expressing optimism that the two countries would take positive steps to deal with existing issues.

Iran firmly believes that the persisting instability and insecurity in Afghanistan has its roots in the presence of foreign troops and has repeatedly called for the complete withdrawal of US-led forces from the country.

Iran, which has close ethnic and religious ties with Afghanistan, is a long-time victim of opium production in the neighbor state.

Although Iran has won the praise of the UN for its strenuous efforts in fighting drug trafficking, its long border with Afghanistan has prompted smugglers to view Iran as the best route for transporting drug to Europe and the West.

Since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, drug production in the country has surged making it the source of 90 percent of the world’s heroin supply.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang says Beijing insists that diplomacy is the only way to end the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.

“We have said all along that the Iranian nuclear issue has to be peacefully resolved by diplomatic means through dialogue and negotiations,” AFP quoted Qin as saying on Tuesday.

“At present, there is still space for diplomatic efforts, dialogue, and consultation,” he added.

The comments came ahead of a visit by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, due in China on Sunday for a four-day trip, during which Iran’s nuclear program is expected to be one of the main topics to be discussed.

China has repeatedly called for a diplomatic solution to the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.

Japan has verified the existence of a secret nuclear pact with the United States that allows US forces to bring nuclear weapons into the country.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said on Tuesday that a panel of experts confirmed the existence of the pact after examining thousands of documents over a period of months.

From the 1960s, Japan has allowed the United States to deploy nuclear weapons on the southern island of Okinawa, the panel said.

Japan’s previous governments had always denied the existence of such secret agreements.

However, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s government, which came to power six months ago, has adopted less US-friendly policies.

Yet Hatoyama says he believes the nuclear deterrence is necessary to maintain regional security.

In its calls for total nuclear disarmament, Japan has always emphasized its status as the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons.

At least two NATO soldiers have been killed in a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, eyewitnesses say.

The incident occurred in Khost Province’s Ali Shir District near the border with Pakistan where a NATO army base is located.

However, NATO spokeswoman Master Sergeant Sabrina Foster asserted that she could not confirm reports that the attack took place at the base.

In another attack in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, two policemen and a civilian were killed in a roadside bomb attack.

“The attack occurred in the southeastern corner of Kandahar province near the Pakistan border,” said General Abdul Raziq, the border police commander for the region.

Iran has spent more than $280 million in the reconstruction projects of Afghanistan so far, says Iran’s envoy to its eastern neighbor.

“A total of $220 million has been spent in the road construction projects while more than $60 million was provided in education, telecommunications, electricity, borders security, health sector, higher education and sports,” Iran’s Ambassador in Kabul, Fada Hussein Maleki, told Press TV in an exclusive interview.

Maleki pointed out that Iran had pioneered in helping the Afghan people and offered its full support for the reconstruction of Afghanistan in international conferences such as those in Tokyo and London.

“The reconstruction of Afghanistan after several lengthy wars was an important issue and all countries had to contribute to it,” he said.

“Iranian and Afghan delegations will be exchanging visits to each other’s countries in the near future.”

Iran and Afghanistan have about 1,000 kilometers in common border. The two countries have a trade volume of more than $1.3 billion.

The United Arab Emirates police have accused Israel of vast falsification of Western passports that was discovered after a January assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai.

“I ring alarm bells. Israel is falsifying Western passports on a large scale. We discover forged passports on a daily basis,” said Dubai police Chief Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim on Tuesday.

“The world must stop an operation of vast falsification of official documents (that) a formal body (Israel’s spy agency Mossad) is carrying out,” he added.

Dubai police have formerly accused Mossad spy agency of being behind the terrorist killing of Hamas commander Mahmud al-Mabhuh who was drugged and then suffocated in his hotel room in January 19.

The police released photos and information of 27 suspects, who entered Dubai on fake passports, using the identities of 12 individuals from Britain, six from Ireland, four from France, three from Australia, and a German.

The international police agency Interpol named a fourth Australian passport holder in connection with the terror killing of al- Mabhuh on Tuesday, Australian officials said.

The Australian government said it believed Mr Krycer’s passport was forged, like other false documents used in the plot.

“There is no information to suggest that Mr Krycer, as with any of the other three Australian passport-holders, was involved in any way, other than as victims of identity fraud,” said Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith.

Interpol issued arrest notices Monday for 16 suspects wanted over the murder. It had previously issued notices for 11 other suspects in connection with the terror killing.

North Korea has expressed its preparedness for both dialogue and war with Washington, but vows to enlarge its nuclear arsenal to counter what it describes as US “military threats and provocations.”

“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is fully ready for dialogue and war. It will continue bolstering up its nuclear deterrent as long as the US military threats and provocations go on,” North’s official Korean Central News Agency quoted an unidentified foreign ministry spokesman as saying on Tuesday.

The statement from North Korea’s foreign ministry was the latest in a series of criticism against an annual joint exercise that South Korea and the United States launched Monday.

The ten-day Key Resolve/Foal Eagle drill involves 18,000 US troops and 20,000 South Korean troops. Pyongyang says the war game is a preparation for a nuclear war.

The nuclear-armed state claims the drill amounts to a rehearsal for a preemptive nuclear attack on the country. Pyongyang has said its military is ready to “blow up” any aggressors and has vowed to suspend all military dialogue with Washington and Seoul during the period.

This year’s joint military drill — the largest between South Korea and the United States — comes amid pressures to return Pyongyang back to six-party talks.

The disarmament-for-aid nuclear talks are aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear program through a negotiating process involving China, the United States, North and South Korea, Japan, and Russia.

Relocation of US troops from Futenma Marine airfield in Okinawa’s Ginowan to the smaller town of Nago faces opposition by the Nago assembly.

The assembly on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution of protest against the ruling coalition’s People’s New Party (PNP).

The PNP plans to present an alternative to a 2006 US-Japan deal to relocate Futenma from the crowded city of Ginowan on Okinawa to the coastal area of Nago.

The PNP program “will result in only moving the noise and dangers of Futemma to Nago,” according to the assembly’s resolution.

It “will destroy the living and educational environments (for local residents) and is simply impermissible,” it added.

Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama had earlier announced that it would decide on the agreement by May.

Accidents and crimes committed by US service personnel near Okinawa’s residential areas have turned the local population against the presence of the American forces there.

Washington has nearly 50,000 troops based in Japan, more than half of whom are in Okinawa.

Press TV, Iran’s English-language news network, available through broadcasts and the Internet, has been reported to be a very popular news source among the people and even journalists of Afghanistan.

According to local reports, when Press TV became available on cable in Kabul and various provinces, Afghan officials and ordinary citizens welcomed the international network as an alternative, more credible news source.

The country’s media regularly consults Press TV’s website to access daily news that are more in tune with the public preference, say media officials.

Meanwhile, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is reported to have told a private gathering he tunes in to Press TV’s news reports and that he finds them more reliable and enlightening than other English language sources.

The US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 has turned the country into a hotspot with breaking news on a daily basis.

Western countries have been trying to censor news relating to civilian casualties in order to justify Washington’s military measures in the war-torn country.

However, Press TV is doing its best to broadcast the most accurate count on casualties in the foreign-occupied nation through live reports.

Press TV has set a precedent as the first Iranian international news network, broadcasting in English on a round-the-clock basis.

It is also extensively networked with bureaus located in the world’s most strategic locations.

The United States and South Korea kick off their joint annual military exercise despite North Korean threats of using ‘merciless physical force’ in reaction to the drills.

Some 18,000 American soldiers and an undisclosed number of South Korean troops are taking part in the 10-day war game which include live-firing by US Marines, aerial attack drills and urban warfare training.

The exercises, code-named ‘Key Resolve and Foal Eagle,’ are aimed at practicing how to deploy US reinforcements in time of an emergency on the Korean peninsula, US military spokesman Kim Yong-kyu said.

Officials in Seoul and Washington insist the drills are purely defensive, but North Korea has denounced the maneuvers as a rehearsal for invasion, demanding their cancellation.

Pyongyang warned it would further enhance its nuclear capability and break off dialogue with the United States in response to the drills.

On Sunday, the North’s military also threatened to use “merciless physical force” in response to the warlike measure by the two allies, saying it was no longer bound by the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

The war game comes amid efforts spearheaded by the US to force the North to rejoin international disarmament talks on halting its atomic weapons program in return for aid.

The North pulled out of the six-nation weapons talks last April following what it described as US provocative statements undermining its national security and not living to its commitments.

Pyongyang then reengaged in missile testing which prompted US-led efforts in the United Nations to impose tougher sanctions on the country.

A bomb has exploded in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore during the morning rush hour, killing at least 11 people and wounding 61 others.

The blast took place in Model Town area near the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) building on Monday.

“We are trying to ascertain the nature of the blast,” police official Mohammad Riaz told AFP.

The death toll is expected to rise further as most of the injured are said to be in critical condition.

The incident has also destroyed the building of the FIA entirely and damaged adjacent buildings.

The FIA is a civilian law enforcement agency that had been targeted by militant attacks before, though today’s bombing appeared to be the first time this particular building was hit.

The explosion seemed to be the strongest to strike Pakistan in the past several weeks.

Afghan police say up to 60 militants and 19 civilians have been killed in bloody clashes between rival militant groups in the north of the country.

On Sunday, fighting erupted in Baghlan province between the Taliban and militants of the Hezb-i-Islami group, which is led by former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Both groups are active in the area.

Police say 40 members of Hezb-i-Islami and 20 Taliban militants were killed in the clashes.

Hezb-i-Islami is the second biggest militant group in Afghanistan.

Three more US-led NATO soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in separate incidents on Sunday, bringing the total number of foreign troops who have died so far this year to 117.

In a statement, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said that one soldier was killed by gunfire and another by an improvised bomb in the south of the country, and the third by gunfire in the east.

The alliance, however did not disclose the nationality of the deceased or the exact location of the incidents, AFP reported.

Despite a considerable troop surge, last year was the deadliest yet for US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan, with 519 fatalities reported in the conflict.

The number of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan is expected to further rise from 121,000 to 150,000 by the end of this year.

Around 15,000 US and NATO troops launched a major assault in Helmand province’s Marjah and Nad Ali areas on February 13 to battle militancy in the region.

Both Afghan and NATO officials say progress is being slowed by militant-led violence.

The biggest victims of the offensive, however, have been civilians residing in the conflict areas. The residents have been forced to flee their homes in pursuit of basic necessities, despite roadside bombs planted by militants.

Moreover, the civilians fall victim to US-led forces assaults as well as militant fire on a regular basis.

In response to a joint South Korea-US military drill, North Korea said Sunday it will no longer make efforts towards nuclear disarmament.

North Korea also threatened to use “merciless physical force” in reaction to the annual military exercises due to kick off on Monday.

Pyongyang also announced that it would no longer abide by the armistice that brought a truce to the Korean War fifty years ago.

“The revolutionary armed forces of (North Korea) will be left with no option but to exercise merciless physical force as the rival is set to do harm to the (North),” the military’s mission at the truce village of Panmunjom said in a statement carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.

The mission said that South Korea violated the armistice by participating in the military cooperation with the United States.

Both South Korea and the US, which keeps about 28,500 troops in the country, insist the maneuvers are purely defensive.

However, on Sunday, Pyongyang condemned the drills as a preparation for an invasion.

The two Koreas are in theory still at war as the Korean War in the 1950s ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.

Iran’s president is expected to discuss the problems facing Afghanistan with Kabul officials during a Monday visit to the war-torn country.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will meet with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai during his one-day visit to Kabul, Mehr News agency reported.

Finding solutions to the challenges facing Afghanistan and trade talks are expected to be high on the meeting’s agenda.

Iran believes instability and insecurity in Afghanistan has its roots in the presence of foreign troops and has repeatedly called for the complete withdrawal of US-led forces from the country.

Iran, which has close ethnic and religious ties with Afghanistan, is a long-time victim of opium production in the neighbor state.

Although Iran has won the praise of the UN for its strenuous efforts in fighting drugs trafficking, its long border with Afghanistan has prompted smugglers to view Iran as a route for drug trafficking to Europe and the West.

Since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan drug production has surged in the country, making it the source of 90 percent of the world’s heroin.

Beijing blames the soured Sino-US relations on Washington policies in the region, insisting better ties are possible should the US respect China’s interest.

“The responsibility for the difficulties in China-US relations does not lie with China,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Sunday on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress.

Washington’s planned sale of a $6.4-billion weapons package to Taiwan, the self-governing island which China claims to be part of the mainland, has contributed to the Chinese displeasure with the US.

“The United States should take seriously China’s position and respect China’s core interests,” Yang noted. The move pushed China to suspend military exchanges with those US firms involved in the arms deal, threatening to retaliate against them.

Another US move that has prompted strong Chinese reaction has been the meeting between US President Barack Obama and the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.

China says the Dalai Lama seeks independence for the Himalayan region and thus considers persistent efforts by the US to open ties with the separatist leader as interfering with issues of Chinese national interest.

However, referring to a recent visit by two high-level US officials, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Senior White House Asia adviser Jeffrey Bader, Yang said “we don’t think diplomatic efforts have been exhausted.”