A number of Afghan political parties said Sunday that President Hamid Karzai's recent comments against Washington threaten Afghanistan's national interests and said if he continues on this path he will damage also the relationship with the international community.

"The recent words of the president will cause the international community to be reluctant about being in Afghanistan, and it will also impact the current political process while extremely threatening the national interests of the country," said National Coalition spokesman Sayed Aqa Fazel Sancharaki to TOLOnews.

Karzai released a statement last week that if the international forces are not withdrawn from the province bordering Kabul, Maidan Wardak, and full control of Bagram prison north of Kabul is not handed over the government, the US military will be equivalent to occupying Afghanistan.

A few days earlier, Karzai gave two public speeches in which he severely criticised the US intentions in Afghanistan and accused Washington of secret talks with the Taliban.

The Right and Justice party also warned Karzai over the comments.

"Today, we can't even provide for our basic needs and it will be the same for the next 10 years. Therefore we have a serious need of cooperation from the international community and our position against the community should not be emotional," party member Hamidullah Farouqi told TOLOnews Sunday.

The politicians fear that if the foreign assistance were to be withdrawn too soon, Afghanistan will struggle to maintain the progress it has made to date.

The process of handing over responsibility for Bagram prison – an issue which has already been running for more than a year – has caused some tension between the two governments.

Although the process of handover is constantly postponed, US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel told Karzai Saturday night that the process will be completed within the next week.

Smugglers have stolen nearly 5000 birds out of Afghanistan in the past 12 months, taking them to various countries particularly the Gulf nations, Afghanistan Environment Protection Agency (AEPA) said Sunday.

AEPA head Mustafa Zahir said that geese and falcons are the most popular birds for smugglers, mostly taken from the northern provinces.

"Unfortunately bird smuggling is continuing in the country, especially in Balkh and Bamyan. Mostly they are smuggling geese and falcon. But more than 80 percent of them are dying in the highways [on the journey]," Zahir said in the Balkh capital Mazar-e-Sharif.

He called on government officials to take action over the smuggling of the birds and other wildlife beyond Afghanistan's borders.

His comments comes as non-government organisations from the United Arabic Emirates (UAE) invested $1 million for the protection of birds in Mazar-e-Sharif.

"We are investing to protect those birds and animals that are facing conditions of extinction. Our goal is to protect them to ensure they are not smuggled," said Sayed Abdul Samad Munib, the head of the UAE non-government institutions for the protection of wildlife and birds.

The group returned more than 30 falcons and hawks recovered from smugglers in the UAE and then freed them in Mazar-e-Sharif Sunday.

AEPA's Zahir welcomed the funding and the support of the UAE institutions.

Around 18 Taliban members who have shown a desire to negotiate with the Afghan government or join the peace process have recently been killed, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman has told TOLOnews to illustrate the reach of those opposed to a government-Taliban peace deal.

"Over the past month, a number of Taliban who were wanting to join the peace process and had maintained relations with the Afghan government and High Peace Council were recently caught and put in prison, and about 17 or 18 of them were killed after being tortured," said Aimal Faizi on Saturday, blaming outsiders.

"The peace process is being sabotaged and it will continue to be [sabotaged]. Some countries do not want the process to be carried out," he added.

The High Peace Council said the deaths and arrests are a sign of the disarray of the peace process both inside and outside Afghanistan, warning that the disorder will end up harming those causing it.

"They may sabotage it, but they should be concerned that the fire that is being ignited in Afghanistan and on which they are throwing fuel will set themselves alight one day," said leading HPC member Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar.

At least one political analyst believes that the Taliban are "pawns" in Pakistan's political aims and are backed by a number of groups inside the Pakistani government.

"The Taliban are the pawns of Pakistan and they want Pakistan's interests. Therefore the peace process is their pawn too," said Jawid Kohestani, political expert.

However, a former Taliban leader accused both Kabul and Islamabad of not being honest in its peace process efforts saying there are people in both governments seeking personal interest.

"There are people within the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan that are seek personal benefits in the peace process," said Sayed Akbar Agha, former head of Taliban's Jaish al-Muslimeen group, on Sunday.

"The governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan are not being honest towards the peace process," he added.

Nevertheless, criticism from the Afghan government throughout the peace process has been leveled at Islamabad, even as a number of Afghan Taliban members have been released from Pakistani prisons at the HPC request.

Over the past months, Pakistan has released as many as 26 Taliban prisoners including the former justice minister of the Taliban regime Mullah Nooruddin Torabi, and also Anwarul Haq Mojahid.

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Around 17 or 18 Taliban members who have shown a desire to negotiate with the Afghan government or join the peace process have recently been killed, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman told TOLOnews.

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Afghan film "A Man's Desire for a Fifth Wife" has been nominated for the US's Boston International Film Festival (BIFF) which will held in April.

The film festival will be held from the April 12 to April 21 at the Boston Massachusetts which showcases over 90 films annually.

The film, directed by Sediq Abedi, was made in northern Faryab and Balkh provinces and took about a year to make.

It tells the story of an Afghan man who desires to take a fifth wife, and through the story line explores the issues of violence against women. It also shows aspects of the traditional culture of Afghanistan.

The film runs for about 90 minutes and boasts more than 70 Afghan actors.

"The movies have been selected from more than 2500 movies for the US's Boston International Film Festival and it also registered in France's the Cannes International Film Festival and an international Australian film festival," said the director of the movie Sediq Abedi.

"I am sure that the movie has a good massage to the world and it's about the Afghan traditional cultural," he said.

The film festival, established in 2003, features independent films from around the world and the US. The festival has presented many acclaimed films including Academy Award winner for short film West Bank Story and includes feature films, short films and documentaries, with a strong emphasis on multi-culturalism.

Police in India said Sunday they had arrested a group of farmers in their twenties who had confessed to gang-raping a Swiss cyclist, the latest in a series of shocking sex crimes in the country.

The woman was on a biking holiday with her husband in central Madhya Pradesh state when she was attacked on Friday night while putting up a tent in a remote forested area.

Her husband was tied up as she was assaulted and the pair were also robbed, police said.

Local officer M.S. Dhodee said five local men, illiterate small-scale farmers aged 20-25, had been arrested. A sixth suspect, 19, was detained in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh state and was being returned to the area.

Dhodee said they had recovered a laptop, some cash and a mobile phone stolen during the assault, which occurred as the couple were getting ready to spend the night ahead of a trip to the Taj Mahal in the town of Agra.

"They were passing by, noticed the couple putting up their tent and saw an opportunity to attack and rape the woman," Dhodee said.

"We found the laptop buried carefully under a pile of leaves, near some shrubs in the forest. The mobile phone was recovered from the home of the mother-in-law of one of the men," he added.

The five arrested men face charges of rape and robbery. The sixth suspect is expected to face the same charges.

Their confessions to police will likely be inadmissible as evidence under Indian law, which rarely allows court prosecutors to cite such statements since they are seen as unreliable and involuntary.

The alleged rapists live in a village near the scene of the assault, which took place about 40 miles (70 kilometres) from the nearest town of Gwalior, which is about 180 miles south from New Delhi.

After the attack, the 39-year-old rape victim and her husband, a 30-year-old mechanic, stopped a motorcyclist who took them to the nearest police station, said SonntagsBlick, a Swiss German-language newspaper.

She underwent a medical examination at a local hospital before leaving for the Indian capital Delhi, police said.

The woman's mother-in-law told AFP in Switzerland that she had spoken to her son and the couple were recovering.

"This morning he phoned me to say they are in New Delhi and that they are both alright," she said in a phone interview from the family's farm in central Switzerland.

U.C. Shadangi, another local police officer, said that his force was in touch with the Swiss embassy who declined to comment to AFP about the case.

The couple arrived in Mumbai last month after visiting Iran and began a cycling holiday across India, making their way to Orchha, a popular foreign tourist haunt in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, police said.

The Swiss foreign ministry in Bern released a statement on Saturday expressing deep shock at the "tragic incident".

The ministry had issued an advisory for Swiss nationals travelling in India last month, warning that sexual violence was on the rise across the country, and urging both women and men to travel in large groups and with local guides.

In January, a South Korean student holidaying in Madhya Pradesh said she had been raped and drugged by the son of the owner of the hotel where she stayed.

That incident came just six weeks after thousands took to India's streets in nationwide protests following the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi.

The victim, a physiotherapy student died from internal injuries after being savagely assaulted by six men. One of her alleged attackers was found dead in his prison cell in New Delhi on Monday.

Police suspect he hanged himself, but his family says he was murdered. The government has since opened an investigation into his death.

India's government is facing heavy pressure to step up efforts to protect women after the deadly gang-rape in the capital last December.

Under a new bill approved by India's cabinet last week, rapists face a minimum 20-year jail term and the death penalty if the victim dies from injuries or is left in a persistent vegetative state.

An Islamic Movement of Uzebkistan (IMU) leader and a Taliban leader have been captured in joint Afghan and Nato troops operations in the country, Isaf said Monday.

"During an operation in Kunduz district, Kunduz province today, an Afghan and coalition security force arrested an Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leader. The leader is believed to have coordinated multiple attacks against Afghan and coalition forces, and has served a vital role in the facilitation of weapons to extremist fighters," Isaf said in a statement.

Joint security forces confirmed Monday the arrest of a Taliban leader in Panjwa'i district, Kandahar province, yesterday, it added.

"The leader is accused of being in charge of a large cell of insurgent fighters known for conducting attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. His cell of fighters have planned and executed ambushes, small-arms assaults, and IED operations," Isaf said.

During the operation, the security forces also detained a number of other insurgents.

Meanwhile, a Taliban facilitator Abdul Satar and another insurgent were killed in a joint operation Panjwa'i district of southern Kandahar province, yesterday.

Satar was involved in coordinating improvised explosive device-making materials, weapons, supplies and fighters. He also participated in IED and direct-fire attacks targeting the Afghan local police in Kandahar province, Isaf said.

Two other insurgents were killed and several others were arrested in separate operations in Kandahar and eastern Nangarhar province, yesterday, the statement said.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pledged a further $200 million towards the development of Afghanistan's electricity network, according to the state electric company Brishna.

Brishna officials Monday said the money will be used to build and improve the electricity network in Logar and Paktiya provinces, as well as help supply the transition of a 500 Kilowatt electricity cable project from neighbouring Turkmenistan to Afghanistan.

"The project includes a 500 kilowatts line from Turkmenistan to Jawzjan province and then to Mazar-e Sharif city. The line will go to Baghlan province in the future. The construction of a 220 kw substation in Logar and Gardiz is part of the project," Brishna chief Abdul Razaq Samadi said.

The head of Brishna also mentioned that another electricity project worth $120 million running from Pul-e Khomri, the capital of Baglan, to Kabul will be funded by the ADB and will be signed in a few months.

The ADB has agreed to fund $1.2 billion in Afghan development projects until 2016.

"The Asian Development Bank made a very strong commitment for the long term, engaging with Afghanistan as development partner. We have committed $1.2 billion up to 2016 and this is to be invested in the future. And together, all of us as partners in development for those who believe in the future of Afghanistan, we will need cooperation," ADB director for Afghanistan Joji Tokeshi said.

Afghan lawmaker Abdulrahman Rahmani said Monday that his fellow MPs asked him to buy their vote in his bid to be head of the parliamentary complaints commission.

Rahmani said during Monday's parliamentary session that other MPs have asked for thousands of dollars for their vote to appoint him, and said that other lawmakers have experienced similar requests to be voted onto other special parliamentary commissions.

"Corruption exists in the appointment of the head of the complaints commission. I was one of the candidates for the post and I have been asked for a bribe of $3000 [for a vote]. This action is very serious in the parliament," Abdulrahman Rahmani told the lower house.

MP Allah Gul Mujaheed said that there is document evidence of this abuse.

"Many parliament members are asking bribes to appoint people to the commissions. We have documents that those who are asking for bribes are those people who are calling themselves religious scholars," Mujaheed told the lawmakers.

Other parliamentary members who spoke in Monday's session stressed that until the lower house is not reformed from the inside, it will be difficult for it to fight the challenges which the country is facing, especially in terms of corruption.

President Hamid Karzai said Monday that the US will not leave Afghanistan alone and described the recent tensions as media propaganda.

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Afghan police casualties have increased 15 percent in the past year, according to the Ministry of Interior.

This Persian year - March 2012 to March 2013 – about 1800 police officers have been killed by insurgent roadside bombs, suicide attacks and clashes, a 15 percent rise on the year before, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said at a press conference in Kabul.

More than 3,000 other security forces have been injured in the attacks, while about 6,300 insurgents have been also killed and 980 other insurgents have been injured, he said.

He said that 6,800 other insurgents have been arrested in the Afghan operations in the same 12 month period.

"The police force sacrifices should be praised in the campaign against terrorism and suicide bombers outside Afghanistan," he said.

The number of Afghan police reached 157,000 last year, he said, promising that the ministry will pay more attention to building the capacity of the security forces.

"We want to prove that we're able to handle the security of Afghanistan. We have already have taken the lead in 87 percent of the country," Sediqi said.

He added that the Afghan government is concerned about insurgents crossing the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

Isaf spokesman Brig Gen Gunter Katz also addressed the press conference saying that patience is needed to overcome the challenges facing the security forces, particularly the border regions.

"Our mandate was to make sure that Afghanistan will never be a safe haven for terrorists again" he said. "We see that we are well underway here towards a better future but we also need to understand that this will be an issue that will not be resolved tomorrow or within the next weeks to come. We need some patience. But again, we're on the right way to overcome the challenges that we see originating from the border regions."

The Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission should be abolished for its widespread corruption including bribes received for government appointments, lawmakers said Monday.

Calling for a serious evaluation of the commission's activities, Parliament's first vice speaker Mirwais Yasini said the competitive tests held by the commission should be discontinued.

"Tribalism at the ministries in the administrative reform commission alone show the corruption within this commission. There is large amounts of money spent by the commission, but there has been no impressive achievement," said MP Saranwal Abdulraouf.

Another MP said, "Every director for government offices are bribing large amounts of money, otherwise they would not be selected for the post."

"This commission is not a commission for administrative reform but a commission for corruption," added MP Ahmad Shah Ramazan.

MP Nazifa Zaki pointed out that many of the qualified young Afghans are not being selected for posts in government departments.

"The administrative reform commission should be abolished as most of the youth who refer to this commission are not being provided job opportunities and will remain with no destiny ahead," she said.

Meanwhile, the head of the commission Ahmad Moshahed was summoned to give an account before parliament. He said the commission has selected the government staff transparently and in accordance with the laws.

"The administrative reform commission is a policy-making organisation... It is prepared to bring change to its work by considering people's opinions and visions," he told the lawmakers.

The decision of whether or not to abolish the commission has been postponed because the number of MPs attending Monday's parliamentary session was not sufficient to take a vote.

Afghanistan's Ulema Council needs to be independent and should not be politically influenced in its decisions, the National Coalition leader said Monday.

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Two teenage boys and a street vendor have survived being shot by police Monday after the boys attempted to escape from a correctional centre in Kabul, according to police.

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President Hamid Karzai said Monday that the US will not leave Afghanistan alone and described the recent tensions as media propaganda.

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Afghan film "A Man's Desire for a Fifth Wife" has been nominated for the US's Boston International Film Festival (BIFF) which will held in April.

The film festival will be held from the April 12 to April 21 at the Boston Massachusetts which showcases over 90 films annually.

The film, directed by Sediq Abedi, was made in northern Faryab and Balkh provinces and took about a year to make.

It tells the story of an Afghan man who desires to take a fifth wife, and through the story line explores the issues of violence against women. It also shows aspects of the traditional culture of Afghanistan.

The film runs for about 90 minutes and boasts more than 70 Afghan actors.

"The movies have been selected from more than 2500 movies for the US's Boston International Film Festival and it also registered in France's the Cannes International Film Festival and an international Australian film festival," said the director of the movie Sediq Abedi.

"I am sure that the movie has a good massage to the world and it's about the Afghan traditional cultural," he said.

The film festival, established in 2003, features independent films from around the world and the US. The festival has presented many acclaimed films including Academy Award winner for short film West Bank Story and includes feature films, short films and documentaries, with a strong emphasis on multi-culturalism.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pledged a further $200 million towards the development of Afghanistan's electricity network, according to the state electric company Brishna.

Brishna officials Monday said the money will be used to build and improve the electricity network in Logar and Paktiya provinces, as well as help supply the transition of a 500 Kilowatt electricity cable project from neighbouring Turkmenistan to Afghanistan.

"The project includes a 500 kilowatts line from Turkmenistan to Jawzjan province and then to Mazar-e Sharif city. The line will go to Baghlan province in the future. The construction of a 220 kw substation in Logar and Gardiz is part of the project," Brishna chief Abdul Razaq Samadi said.

The head of Brishna also mentioned that another electricity project worth $120 million running from Pul-e Khomri, the capital of Baglan, to Kabul will be funded by the ADB and will be signed in a few months.

The ADB has agreed to fund $1.2 billion in Afghan development projects until 2016.

"The Asian Development Bank made a very strong commitment for the long term, engaging with Afghanistan as development partner. We have committed $1.2 billion up to 2016 and this is to be invested in the future. And together, all of us as partners in development for those who believe in the future of Afghanistan, we will need cooperation," ADB director for Afghanistan Joji Tokeshi said.

Syria's opposition coalition meets in Istanbul on Monday to select their first rebel prime minister, tasked with running daily life in large swathes of territory freed from regime control but mired in chaos and poverty.

A former agriculture minister, an economist and a communications executive lead the race in a vote that could change the course of Syria's conflict.

The rebel premier's first task would be to appoint a new government, which would be based inside Syria.

While it would boost the opposition's credibility, a rebel government would have little chance of dialogue with the regime of President Bashar alAssad.

The umbrella Syrian National Coalition cautioned that there is no guarantee that the election will take place as scheduled, with the process having been postponed before.

In rebel-held parts of Syria, opinion is divided between residents desperate for basic services and the rule of law and those who feel the Coalition is ill-suited to choose a competent administration.

"The coalition is not close enough to the ground to have a real sense of the needs here," Aleppo-based activist Abu Hisham told AFP.

Matar Ismail, an activist in Damascus, disagreed, saying there was "a real need in the liberated areas for better administration of daily life".

"There are more than 10 million Syrians in liberated territories who need education and health services," Coalition spokesman Walid alBunni told AFP.

"But should there not be an election tomorrow (Monday), there will be a need for more discussion with (rebel) local councils and the Free Syrian Army groups fighting in Syria," he added.

Opposition sources said former agriculture minister Asaad Mustapha, economist Osama Kadi, and communications executive Ghassan Hitto were frontrunners for the vote.

Should they reach a consensus, those gathering in Istanbul are likely to pick a good administrator with long-standing ties to the uprising, although nations backing the rebels, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, are likely to influence the choice.

"The prime minister must be a man who is completely with the revolution, and it is better that it be someone who was in Syria until recently, not someone who has lived abroad for a long time," opposition figure Haytham alMaleh said.

"There's a push to ensure the interim prime minister is a technocrat," another Coalition member told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Aleppo-born Kadi, founder of the Syrian Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Washington, is favoured for his technocratic background, as is Hitto, who has lived in the United States for decades.

Mustapha brings eight years of experience as a minister under Syria's former president Hafez al-Assad.

"If what's wanted is a technocrat then perhaps Osama Kadi will win. And if the choice is based on who has experience and is the most capable politically, it will be Asaad Mustapha," Coalition member Ahmed Ramadan told AFP.

"The latter has good experience... and he has been close to the revolution from its beginning and is respected."

Several prominent opposition figures are not in the running, including Christian dissident Michel Kilo, who has said he will not stand.

The Coalition is expected to hold an initial vote, followed by a run-off between the top two candidates. The winner will then choose a cabinet, which must be approved by the Coalition.

The United States is believed to oppose the creation of an interim government, fearing it could hamper efforts to start a dialogue with the regime, but the process has been backed by Turkey and much of the Arab League.

The long-awaited distribution of electronic ID cards will start Hamal 3 (March 23) after Nowruz, Karzai's office said Monday.

The Council of Ministers has discussed has ordered the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to start processing the IDs by Saturday, the statement from Karzai's office said.

The new ID cards are expected to be distributed over a period of three years, a process that will cost $121 million and employ thousands of people, according to Afghan officials.

Officials of the Computerized ID Card Distribution Department at the Ministry of Interior have said that the government is prepared to distribute electronic ID cards to an estimated 30 million people.

Some of the challenges faced ahead of the election and a lack of precise demographic statistics are expected to be tackled by the distribution of these ID cards.

The UK's defence ministry has said that the British soldiers fighting in Afghanistan are part of a campaign that attempted to "impose an ideology foreign to the Afghan people" and was "unwinnable in military terms."

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