The Chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council on Friday said that suicide attacks in Afghanistan are permitted as long as US forces are present in the country.

"Palestine is occupied by Israel, Kashmir by India, and Afghanistan by the US. So if the Muslims don't have the atomic bomb, they should sacrifice their lives for God," head of Pakistan Ulema Council Alama Tahir Ashrafi said in an interview with TOLOnews.

"We are asking America to leave the region in order for the region to become peaceful," he added.

Afghanistan's Ulema Council has rejected his comments, stressing that suicide attacks are unlawful under Islam.

"Pakistan does has the atomic bomb, so why are they carrying out suicide attacks? Suicide bombing is unlawful in Islam religion," member of Afghanistan's Ulema council Abdul Qayoub Hafiz told TOLOnews.

Afghan political analyst Mir Ahmad Joyenda said Ashrafi's comments show that Pakistan's Ulema supports the insurgency.

"I think they don't know enough about Islam or they are supporting Pakistan's intelligence office jobs. There is nothing about the suicide attacks in Islam. They [the Ulema] are permitting suicide bombings and showing their support," he said.

It comes after Pakistan's council of religious clerics recently announced that they will not attend a planned joint Ulema summit between the two countries to build support against suicide bombings and facilitate the Afghan peace process.

In an official letter addressed to the Afghan clerics, Mufti Abu Huraira Mohiuddin, head of the Pakistani clerics, said they are not willing to criticise any of the Afghan Taliban's past activities, nor would they issue a fatwa against them. The Pakistani council had previously said that they wanted the Taliban to also attend the conference.

The religious conference between Kabul and Islamabad was agreed on about three months ago in a meeting between Afghan and Pakistani government officials.

Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf said Friday he would return home within weeks to contest elections after nearly five years in self-imposed exile, but did not set a specific date.

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Wrestling leaders from political foes Iran and the United States have united as part of a coalition of nations trying to keep the sport from being dumped from the Olympic lineup.

Together with Russia and other world powers in freestyle and Greco-Roman disciplines, the US and Iran came together last month when the Americans competed in the World Cup at Tehran.

In a symbol of their common quest to avoid being ousted from the lineup at the 2020 Olympics, the US team shook hands and posed for photographs with Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as sporting diplomacy trumped political issues.

"We have to bond as a worldwide community to keep wrestling in the Games," said US 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Coleman Scott. "It was outstanding to see they are just as passionate about the sport as we are.

"The people in Iran have the same feelings we do. They were just as devastated as we were when they heard the news."

USA Wrestling executive director Rich Bender has shown how sport can unite even the hardest of rivals.

"The outpouring of support internationally for this cause and effort has been nothing short of miraculous," he said. "The coalition we've built with countries around the world is strong and continues to build."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board recommended last month that wrestling, a sport which saw medalists from 29 of 71 participating nations in London last year, not be included at the 2020 Olympics.

Wrestling bosses hope to be among as many of three sports pushed forward from an IOC executive board meeting in May where baseball/softball, karate, roller sports, squash, sport climbing, wakeboard, wrestling and wushu will make their case to join the Olympics.

A final decision on wrestling's fate will come at the IOC general session in September at Buenos Aires.

Former US Olympic Committee chief and USA Wrestling executive director Jim Scherr is working with Serbia's Nenad Lalovic, acting president of world governing body FILA, to assemble a united front to combat the Olympic ouster.

"We are working closely with Lalovic and other FILA members and the IOC to have wrestling remain as one of the core sports programs at the Olympics," said Scherr.

"Obviously, we have a lot of work to do. It's a difficult challenge."

Scherr said rule changes aimed at making wrestling more dynamic and easier to understand for spectators and television audiences are in the works. "I believe there will be sweeping changes that will be refreshing for the worldwide wrestling community," Scherr said.

"It's difficult to gauge how uphill this battle is. From what I've heard from people connected to the IOC that there is a path here for wrestling. Wrestling can remain on the program. Wrestling has to work hard to do so."

President Hamid Karzai has ordered the removal of all US special forces from an eastern province in response to allegations that those forces or their Afghan allies may have committed rights abuses against civilians.

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Russia is making Afghanistan the priority of the UN Security Council for the month of March as it assumes the council's rotating presidency, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The presidency rotates monthly in alphabetical order of the Security Council member nations' names in English. The role involves setting the agenda, presiding at its meetings and overseeing the response to any crisis.

"The situation in Afghanistan will be a priority of Russia's presidency as that country is entering a very responsible stage of its development, which requires new efforts from the people of Afghanistan and consolidated support from the entire international community," the ministry said in a statement ahead of the Friday transfer.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will chair a UN Security Council meeting March 19 on Afghanistan. A resolution extending the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama) will be adopted at the meeting.

The agenda of the Russian presidency will also address the Middle East issues, the settlement of the situation in Kosovo, and the Libyan sanctions regime, among other issues.

The Council has 15 members, including five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States - and 10 non-permanent members elected by the UN General Assembly for two-year terms.

Afghanistan's national football team beat Sri Lanka 1-0 in its first match at the Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup qualifiers in Laos on Saturday.

Afghan striker Belal Arezou scored the goal in the 45th minute of the first half of the match played from 1:00pm to 3:00pm, Laos time.

After beating Sri Lanka, Afghanistan will next face Mongolia on Monday.

Before leaving for Laos, Afghan football coach Yousuf Kargar said that his team is fully prepared for the challenges.

"This is an honor for our national team to compete in the Asian Challenge Cup. We have prepared for this tournament for a month. We selected 23 best football players from players inside and outside country," he told TOLOnews last week.

The AFC competition which began in 2006 is held every two years. In the current qualifiers 20 teams have been placed in five pools of four teams each. Seven teams - the five group winners and the two best second-placed - will head to the Maldives for the main round to be held next year in Male.

A would-be suicide bomber and seven others insurgents have been arrested during two Afghan security forces operations in eastern Nangarhar province, local officials said Saturday.

The operations took place in the Achin and Ghanikhil districts of the province to clear areas of insurgents, according to east Afghanistan border police commander Mohammad Ayoub Hussiankhil.

"During the operations, the security force has been captured a Pakistani national with suicide vast and seven other insurgents," he said.

The forces also seized many weapons in the operations.

"We have started investigating them. The forces also seized improvised explosive devices and weapons in the operations," he said.

The arrested insurgents were part of the insecurity of the province and had launched several attacks against the security forces, he added.

Nangarhar province borders Pakistan and insurgents frequently target the local security forces and government officials.

Maidan Wardak's provincial council Saturday said that the central province will not be secure without the US Special Forces, following a presidential decree banning the elite US forces from the region.

"This is a fact: there will be more threats and the Afghan forces do not have the capability of providing security in those areas," head of the Wardak council Mohammad Rafi Wardak said.

He said the decree of President Hamid Karzai was decided on "hastily".

Wardak, which borders Kabul province and has a population of more than half a million, has some of the most insecure areas of Afghanistan and is also of strategic significance for its closeness to the nation's capital.

Karzai last week ordered his defense ministry to expel US Special Forces from the province within two weeks after reports of Afghan forces subordinate to the US forces allegedly ill-treating, torturing, and even murdering civilians.

In a meeting with Afghanistan's Chief of Army Staff Shir Mohammad Karimi, victims of the Wardak incidents, and provincial authorities, Karimi said that investigations into the allegations were ongoing, something the US officials have been urging.

"They will continue their investigations and [the findings] will be presented to convince you [of the reports]," Karimi said.

Many officials from the province including the governor and the police chief have declined to provide any comment to TOLOnews on this matter.

A new plan to tackle the problem of Afghanistan's half a million internally displaced persons (IDPs) has been made in a meeting of a number of international organisations in Kabul Saturday.

The meeting focused on how to strengthen housing rights for the displaced, especially women who suffer more from the problem of displacement.

The plan will be delivered to the Afghan government to act upon with the strong recommendations of the organisations, including the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

OCHA head Aidan O'Leary said a change was needed because the current plan of attack is not working.

"At this point in time, there are almost half a million IDPs identified across the country as result of the conflict in Afghanistan. When we actually engage with the populations there, the main solution that is on the table is 'return' - return from the place of origin, from where the people have been displaced. In practice that's simply not working and we have many instances where many people have been living away from the place of origin for ten years or more," he said.

"What we need to be looking at is increasingly moving forward are issues of local integration and also issues of resettlement and third locations," he added.

O'Leary said there is a very strong push to create Afghanistan's first ever IDP policy which will clearly define who are the IDPs to be focused on, and what are the real solutions in both humanitarian response and durable solutions.

"What we would like to make sure is that this policy is as informed as possible about the reality on the ground," he added.

Norwegian Refugee Council country director for Afghanistan said global research is helping find solutions.

"There is global research which is going on in different contexts, conflict and non-conflict protected emergencies of rights of women, and their abilities to access especially the property and land rights in this conflict and conflict situation.

This is going across four or five countries including the occupied Palestinian territories, South Sudan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and based on all the findings we will come out with the recommendations," Prasant Naik said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MORR) said Saturday it will also provide the Council of Ministers with a strategy to address IDPs within the next two months.

"The workshop today aimed to find solutions for the issues of displaced women regarding their right of access to properties, land, and houses. We found some solutions and we discussed these and took the suggestions from our partners who work for the internally displaced persons.

These suggestions will help us enrich the policy towards internally displaced persons that we are currently working on," MORR Deputy Minister Abdulsamad Hami said.

"Those who are displaced across the country are vulnerable, and women are more vulnerable than men, even when not displaced. When they are displaced they bear even more vulnerability and will have less rights to house, land, or other properties," he added.

The top two scores for Afghanistan's tertiary entrance exam went to students from the central Ghor province, but the bulk of the top scores came from Daykundi province which had 16 students in top 20.

There were no women among the top 30 scores, with the highest female achiever – who also came from Daykundi – ranking 33rd.

More than 175,000 students sat the test across Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

The top two scorers went to the same school in Ghor province, Sultan Alauddin, and received equal scores of 333 out of 360. The third-highest score was close behind with 332 from a student of Daykundi province.

The top female student received a score of 328.

The Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) reported that a total of 42,168 students made it through to their preferred higher education institution, with another 13,617 making the cut for their preferred technical college.

A further 18,000 students who did not make the score for their higher education institutions will be allowed to attend a "middle education" institute – typically a two-year diploma type course which can be upgraded to a bachelor degree later on.

"The students who failed to succeed in the higher education university entrance will be drawn into the middle education institutions mostly in the provinces in three areas: technical and vocational education institutes, teacher training centers, and religious training centers," MoHE Deputy Minister for Students Affairs Barai Sediqi said in press conference Saturday.

Another 8500 who did not achieve the necessary entrance score are expected to head to private education centres, he added.

Meanwhile, 542 people were caught cheating or violating the rules of the Kankor with a number of them presented to the attorney general, Sediqi said.

In total, 67,956 students achieved scores above the average 167.7 out of 360. Another 49,638 failed.

MoHE officials said that a complaints commission is now open for students to address results they are not satisfied with and it will be active until March 15.

It is expected that over 1000 students with highest scores will receive government scholarships in India, Pakistan, Russia and Kazakhstan.

The results of 2688 students attending religious schools is yet to be announced, the ministry said.

Isaf forces have accidentally shot dead two boys in southern Uruzgan province during a military operation this week, the coalition said in a statement apologising for the mistake.

"It is with deep regret that the International Security Assistance Force announces that its forces were responsible for the unintended death of two young Afghan civilians during an operation Feb. 28 in Shahid-e Hasas District, Uruzgan Province," the statement from the Nato-led forces said.

"I offer my personal apology and condolences to the family of the boys who were killed," it quoted Isaf commander Gen. Joseph Dunford saying. "I am committed to ensuring we do the right thing for the families of those we harmed, as well as for the community in which they lived. We take full responsibility for this tragedy."

Isaf said the boys were killed when the coalition forces fired at what they thought were insurgent forces.

A joint Afghan-Isaf investigation team visited the location today and met with local leaders, Isaf said.

It comes just days after President Hamid Karzai banned US special forces from operating in central Maidan Wardak province following reports of abuse, torture and murder of civilians by Afghan forces subordinate to the US troops.

Reports that the boys were killed by helicopter gunships could not be confirmed. Karzai last month also banned Afghan forces from calling for air support during military operations in an attempt to minimise civilian casualties.

The airpower ban came after as many as 10 civilians were killed by an airstrike targeting Taliban insurgents who were among the civilians in Kunar province.

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Maidan Wardak's provincial council Saturday said that the central province will not be secure without the US Special Forces, following a presidential decree banning the elite US forces from the region.

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in a rare interview he is ready to negotiate with the opposition but will not step down, as the UN chief and his Syria envoy offered to broker peace talks between his regime and rebel leaders.

Assad offered to hold talks with rebels to try to end the crisis on condition they lay down their arms, but made a distinction between the "political entities" he would talk with and "armed terrorists".

"We are ready to negotiate with anyone, including militants who surrender their arms," Assad told The Sunday Times in a videotaped interview conducted last week in his Damascus residence, the Al-Muhajireen palace.

"We can engage in dialogue with the opposition, but we cannot engage in dialogue with terrorists."

His offer of talks was aired as UN chief Ban Ki-moon and his Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said they were prepared to broker peace talks between the Assad regime and the opposition.

A joint statement by the pair said the UN would "be prepared to facilitate a dialogue between a strong and representative delegation from the opposition and a credible and empowered delegation from the Syrian government".

The offer came after both sides in Syria had indicated a "willingness to engage in dialogue", the UN said.

They also warned that both the regime and opposition fighters "have become increasingly reckless with human life" and said perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity must be brought to justice.

In Tehran on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Assad, who took over as president in 2000 following the death of his father Hafez, would take part in next year's presidential election and that it was up to the Syrian people to choose their own leader.

Syria is locked in a 23-month-long conflict in which the United Nations estimates more than 70,000 have been killed. But Assad rejected the idea that the fighting is linked to his continued role as president.

"If this argument is correct, then my departure will stop the fighting," Assad said. "Clearly this is absurd, and other recent precedents in Libya, Yemen and Egypt bear witness to this."

Assad accused the British government of wanting to arm "terrorists" in his country.

"How can we expect them to make the violence less while they want to send military supplies to the terrorists and don't try to ease the dialogue between the Syrians?"

Britain has been pushing for the lifting of a European ban on arms supplies to Syrian rebels, but at a meeting last month European Union foreign ministers decided instead to allow only "non-lethal" aid and "technical assistance" to the opposition.

Assad added that "Britain has played a famously unconstructive role in different issues for decades, some say for centuries" and talked of "a bullying hegemony".

The British government is currently bound by an EU arms embargo which European foreign ministers decided not to lift at a meeting in Brussels on February 18.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague had called for changes to the arms ban "so that we can provide a broader range of support to the National Coalition", the opposition umbrella group in Syria.

Assad in his interview dismissed the suggestion that Britain could play a constructive role in resolving the fighting, saying: "We don't expect an arsonist to be a firefighter."

He accused Britain of wanting to escalate the conflict through its desire to supply military equipment to the rebels.

"How can we expect to ask Britain to play a role while it is determined to militarise the problem?" Assad said.

On the ground, the army said Saturday it had seized control of a key road linking the central province of Hama to Aleppo international airport, the scene of fierce battles since mid-February.

Fierce clashes raged in the northern city of Raqa, where 16 rebels and 10 soldiers were killed, according to the chief of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman.

At least 133 people were killed nationwide on Saturday, the Observatory said.

They included two Palestinians hanged by rebels from trees at Yarmuk refugee camp in Damascus on suspicion of aiding the regime by pinpointing rebel targets, the Observatory said.

The Israeli military said mortar rounds believed to have been fired from Syria hit the southern Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday without causing damage or casualties.

A dozen young Afghan men engage in a tough basketball battle in Helmand's provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. The men play on a newly-built playground which until only a few years ago was the Taliban's front line to target the provincial intelligence headquarters and other government offices across Helmand River.

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President Hamid Karzai released a statement Sunday condemning the Isaf airstrike that mistakenly killed two boys in southern Uruzgan province this week.

In the statement from his office, Karzai said his heartfelt condolences went to the mourning families of the victims.

"Afghan government has repeatedly stressed that the war on terrorism cannot succeed in Afghan villages and homes, but rather in its sanctuaries and safe havens outside our borders," the statement said.

Isaf apologised for the incident on Saturday, saying that coalition forces accidentally shot dead two boys in southern Uruzgan province during a military operation on Thursday.

"It is with deep regret that the International Security Assistance Force announces that its forces were responsible for the unintended death of two young Afghan civilians during an operation Feb. 28 in Shahid-e Hasas District, Uruzgan Province," the statement from the Nato-led forces said.

"I offer my personal apology and condolences to the family of the boys who were killed," it quoted Isaf commander Gen. Joseph Dunford saying. "I am committed to ensuring we do the right thing for the families of those we harmed, as well as for the community in which they lived. We take full responsibility for this tragedy."

Isaf said the boys were killed when the coalition forces fired at what they thought were insurgent forces.

A joint Afghan-Isaf investigation team visited the location today and met with local leaders, Isaf said.

It comes just days after President Hamid Karzai banned US special forces from operating in central Maidan Wardak province following reports of abuse, torture and murder of civilians by Afghan forces subordinate to the US troops.

Karzai last month also banned Afghan forces from calling for air support during military operations in an attempt to minimise civilian casualties.

Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence said Sunday that the international forces do not have the right to demolish military bases in Afghanistan, a practice sometimes done as the foreign troops permanently leave the base.

"We will not permit anyone to demolish any of the bases on Afghan soil," said ministry spokesman Gen Zahir Azimi. "It is Afghanistan's responsibility to recognise which base should remain and which one not."

Azimi said that although the foreign forces are prepared to hand over their bases to the Afghan government across Afghanistan, there are reports that bases in more remote parts of the country might be demolished amid fears they will fall into the hands of insurgents.

"To date, 152 bases have been handed over to the government of Afghanistan, among which 113 bases were handed over to National Army forces and the rest to the police. There should be no doubt of the capability of Afghan forces for defending these bases," Azimi said.

Military expert Najibullah Noorestani questioned the logic of the international forces leaving areas that they think the Afghan army may not be able to defend a base.

"If Afghan forces do not have the capacity to defend these bases, then why would the international forces leave?" He said.

Figures from Ministry of Defence indicate that there are currently 814 military bases across Afghanistan - tactical, operational, and strategic - including the 152 already in the Afghan government's control.

The ministry has said that most of the tactical bases of international forces which are the forces' security posts will be demolished. However the operational and strategic bases will be used for military and civilian purposes.

Iran has tentatively promised to suspend the executions of a number of Afghan nationals until there is a meeting between the judicial authorities of both countries to find a permanent solution for this issue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Sunday.

While the MOFA does not have an exact number of how many Afghans have been sentenced to death in Iran, the ministry said it will request the meeting happens soon.

"Iran's minister of foreign affairs has promised that he will request the head of the judiciary of Iran to suspend the execution of Afghan refugees in Iran," MOFA spokesman Janan Mosazai said Sunday.

The Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation has also discussed sending a delegation to Iran.

"We have appointed delegation and we will look at what they can do according to the law and justice, and we are waiting for the result and after receiving the result the Afghan government will take a decision," Jamahir Anwari at the refugee ministry said.

Civil society institutions are concerned about the execution of Afghan refugees in Iran, arguing that families are not notified and the bodies are desecrated.

"The desecration of the Afghan executed prisoners in Iran is clear. And most importantly, the majority of those executed are kept in Iran's refrigerators and their families are not aware of that," member of Hamso civil society convention, Mohammad Yasen Nagah said.

"We expect the Afghan government to take serious steps to resolve the problem of Afghan prisoners in Iran," university lecturer Raza Farzam said.

Hamso has condemned the executions of the refugees in Iran saying its practices transgress human rights. It has drafted a resolution for Iran to address, covering the following points:

2. Monitoring of international human rights organisations in Iranian prisons.

3. Transparency of the process and fairness of the judicial system

4. Access of Afghan detainees to lawyers

5. Detainees right to meet their families

6. Coordination between Afghan and Iranian diplomats in the process of Afghan hangings in Iran

7. Treatment of Afghan bodies after death by the Iran government.

The National Security Council (NSC) of Afghanistan on Sunday called for the international community, especially the United States, to blacklist intelligence organisations that support insurgent groups, referring to Pakistan's spy agency ISI.

The Deputy National Security Advisor Rahmatullah Nabil called on the Afghan people to unite against "Pakistan's plots", asking all Afghans to support the Afghan National Security Forces to defend the country.

"The interesting question is why is a terrorist blacklisted but the person who issues the Fatwa for them [to act] or who provides havens to them not blacklisted?" he said in a telephone interview with TOLOnews.

"Against these people, organisations at a global scale should unite. People of Afghanistan and the government of Afghanistan will continue their voice of peace, but unfortunately there is not much hope from Pakistan's side and therefore we should rely more on the inside and be more united, more mobilised, and not be deceived by them," he added.

It is the first time that a senior Afghan official has firmly said that Pakistan cannot be part of the solution in peace negotiations with the Taliban. However, it is not clear whether it will actually mean an end to Pakistan's contribution.

The ex-spy chief's comments come after the National Security Council meeting Sunday, chaired by President Hamid Karzai, which discussed peace talks and recent comments by the Pakistani Ulema Council chairman Tahir Ashrafi who "legitimised" the Taliban insurgency and said suicide attacks in Afghanistan were permitted under Islam as long as US forces were present.

"The government of Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan have endeavored to their last breath to have a good relationship with the government of Pakistan based on a virtue of neighbourliness. However in return, what did we see from Pakistan? They fire rockets, they send terrorists to our soil, they destroy our Jihadi leaders, clerics, influences, our Mihrabs, our tribe, our mothers, sisters, brothers, students, children, soldiers and police," Nabil said.

"The head of the Pakistani clerics was introduced via an official letter of the foreign ministry to have a meeting between the clerics of Pakistan and Afghanistan... But unfortunately now they issue a religious Fatwa and consider Jihad in Afghanistan as permissible. Therefore this is their very shameless confession, that Pakistan does not want the people of Afghanistan to have a powerful state and to have people of Afghanistan living united in peace and calmness," he added.

The Afghan High Peace Council (HPC) has also reacted strongly to the statement of the Pakistani clerics leader, releasing their own statement saying that the clerics' declaration contradicts every Islamic principle.

It remarked that the people of Pakistan deserve better representation from their religious leaders, expecting the government of Pakistan to impede war-making individuals and groups.

At a gathering to discuss the statement from Pakistani clerics, member of the committee of scholars and Imams, Enayatullah Sharifi said: "The head of Pakistani clerics is not one to issue a Fatwa; what he has stated is void."

"Pakistan should stop these Islamic aberrations from their country," said Abdulbaseer, head of the scholars of Kabul Zone 7.

What the deputy of the National Security Council has said might indicate a change in Afghanistan's strategies against Pakistan as it could be seen as a failure in previous policies between the two countries.

The Pakistani Ulema last week declined to attend a joint Af-Pak Ulema meeting, initially scheduled to happen in March in Kabul. The Afghan government had wanted to use the opportunity to denounce the Taliban's war and to have the use of suicide bombers declared Haram (prohibited under Islam).

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The National Security Council (NSC) of Afghanistan on Sunday called for the international community, especially the United States, to blacklist intelligence organisations that support insurgent groups, referring to Pakistan's spy agency ISI.

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Thousands of students failed the university admission test - the Kankor.

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