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Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday he supported a new US strategy in the war against terror, which includes military operations inside Pakistan, and called for more international aid and training for his country’s security forces.

‘The new strategy is something that me and my colleagues in the Afghan government have talked about three and a half years ago,’ Karzai said at a press conference marking the seventh anniversary of the Sep 11, 2001, attacks for which the Al Qaeda terror network claimed responsibility.

‘We believe that the change of strategy is important, meaning that we should go to places where are training centres, where are safe havens so that we jointly eliminate them [the terrorists],’ the president said.

His comments came a day after US Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the US Congress he was not ‘convinced we’re winning it in Afghanistan,’ and suggested a ‘new, more comprehensive strategy’ to cover the entire region.

The US-led coalition forces invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, toppling the Taliban government after the Islamic regime refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the attacks, and his associates.

Thousands of militants fled from the country and re-organised themselves in tribal areas along the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, sending hundreds of fighters to stage attacks against Afghan and international forces.

Allegations by the Afghan government of cross-border infiltration by militants based inside Pakistan have strained relations between the two Islamic countries, both main allies of the US in its war against terrorism.

Karzai had been at loggerheads over the issue with former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, who resigned late last month. Both presidents traded accusations that the other side was not doing enough to eliminate the menace of terrorism in the region.

Relations between Kabul and Islamabad, however, apparently improved after Karzai attended Tuesday’s oath-taking ceremony of new President Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of the slain former premier Benazir Bhutto.

‘We hope that the goodwill, which is between the two leaders and have always been between the peoples of the two countries, will turn into a practical struggle and effective fight against terrorism so that with the help of the international community we could bring an ideal peace for the people of this region,’ Karzai said.

Seven years after the ouster of the Taliban regime, Afghanistan is far from a stable and democratic country despite the flow of billions of dollars in aid and the deaths of several hundred international forces, who have been fighting the resurgent Taliban.

Mullah Omar, the elusive Taliban leader, and Osama bin Laden remain at large. Taliban militants have advanced this year from their main hotbeds in southern and eastern regions to areas close to the capital Kabul.

As part of the renewed focus on the country, US President George W. Bush Wednesday announced the deployment of 4,500 additional troops and vowed to boost the size of the Afghan Army to more than 130,000 up from the initial planned 86,000.

There are more than 30,000 US forces in Afghanistan, more than half of them under the banner of NATO-led troops, which has some 53,000 forces from 40 nations stationed in the country.

Karzai welcomed the deployment of extra US forces. ‘These troops will add to the fight against terrorism, I hope they are deployed where they are the most needed in this war against terrorism,’ he said.

Prince William’s engagement with his girlfriend Kate Middleton could be at least 18 months away.

A senior Royal Household source has insisted that any Royal wedding talk was premature, for the couple may not tie the knot until 2010.

The couple sparked a flurry of excitement as they posed for photographs at a friend’s wedding in Austria.

It was the first wedding the pair has attended as a couple for nearly three years, with Middleton having appeared by herself at two royal nuptials this year while William was away working with Britain’s armed forces.

However, the source has played down the chances of the couple’s marrying any time soon.

“There is a lot of planning involved in a royal engagement announcement of a member of the family as senior as Prince William,” News.com.au quoted the source, as saying.

“A number of high-profile people have to be informed formally, and the couple have to be introduced to the Prime Minister of the day among others. All this takes time.

“As far as I am aware I cannot see there being an engagement between the Prince and Miss Middleton for at least 18 months,” the source added.

Greenpeace Canada blasted a lawsuit brought against it by Syncrude Canada Ltd, saying the move was designed to intimidate critics of the sprawling oil sands developments in northern Alberta.

The suit comes after Greenpeace protesters targeted a waste-water pipe at Syncrude’s Aurora mine, north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, on July 24, demanding a halt to rising crude production from the oil sands, which the environmental group says is wrecking the environment.

“This is a punitive lawsuit designed to financially cripple a non-profit organization and intimidate critics of the tar sands,” Mike Hudema, oil sands campaigner for Greenpeace, said in a statement on Friday.

“Syncrude does not want a lantern hung on the world’s dirtiest oil project.”

Protesters put a cap on the pipe to a toxic waste-water pond at the mine site.

They also raised a banner that read “World’s Dirtiest Oil: Stop the Tar Sands” and placed a skull-and-crossbones flag on another pipe into the tailings pond.

The tailings pond garnered global attention earlier this year after 500 ducks died after landing on the waste water, which contains byproducts of heavy metals and other toxins.

“We are seeking an injunction for them not to trespass on our site in the future and put themselves at risk and our people at risk,” said Alain Moore, a spokesman for Syncrude.

He added that the protesters had trespassed in an industrial area where there is large, complex mining equipment.

“We do know the oil sands is a topic of debate and discussion in Canada and we want to be an active part of that debate,” said Moore.

“We just feel that trespassing on a site and putting lives at risk isn’t an effective way to debate.”

Syncrude is also seeking damages of C$120,000 ($113,000).

Greenpeace is calling for the Alberta government to stop approving new projects to exploit the region’s massive oil sands, which hold the biggest petroleum reserves outside the Middle East.

Syncrude, the world’s largest producer of synthetic crude oil, is a joint venture owned by Canadian Oil Sands Trust, Imperial Oil Ltd, Petro-Canada, ConocoPhillips, Nexen Inc, Nippon Oil Corp unit Mocal Energy Ltd and Murphy Oil Corp.

The US-led coalition in Afghanistan on Saturday announced an investigation into government allegations that troops had killed 76 people, mostly children, in air strikes against Taliban rebels.

President Hamid Karzai condemned Friday’s incident in the western province of Heart in a statement that expressed exasperation about a series of events in which civilians have died in anti-militant operations.

The coalition yesterday insisted that only 30 militants were killed in an engagement with Taliban rebels in the western district of Shindand which it said started when Afghan and coalition troops were ambushed. They returned fire and called in air strikes, it said.

But police in the area said that 15 houses were destroyed in the air strikes, resulting in a much higher death toll.

“76 people, all civilians and most of them women and children, were martyred,” the ministry said in a statement. The dead were “19 women, seven men and the rest children all under 15 years of age,” it said.

If the death toll is confirmed, it would be one of the highest for civilians in the battle to fight the extremist Taliban, who were ousted during a US-led invasion in 2001.

The coalition said that it would investigate the incident. “All allegations of civilian casualties are taken very seriously,” the coalition said in a statement from the main US military base in Afghanistan at Bagram, north of Kabul.

“Coalition forces make every effort to prevent the injury or loss of innocent lives. An investigation has been directed.”

It was difficult to independently verify what had happened as Shindand is a dangerous area. Locals had said yesterday that around 55 civilians were dead but the Defence Ministry said that only five were killed.

The governor of Puerto Rico denied new charges of alleged campaign finance violations on Wednesday, accusing federal authorities of political sabotage.

Anibal Acevedo Vila declared his innocence in a televised speech broadcast across the island, accusing federal prosecutors of rewriting six-month old charges to keep their case alive through his November 4 bid for re-election.

“After five months of digging and re-digging to see what else they could obtain, they had to return to the original allegations,” he said, referring to the FBI’s ongoing investigation into his alleged illegal efforts to raise money to pay off more than US$500,000 in campaign debts.

Acevedo was on Tuesday indicted on four counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. A separate grand jury indicted him on 19 separate counts in March, including giving false testimony to the FBI and conspiracy to violate federal campaign laws and defraud the Internal Revenue Service.

Acevedo is expected to stand trial on those charges in San Juan in February.

Acevedo is waging a tight race for re-election against Luis Fortuno, Puerto Rico’s nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress.

Two car bomb attacks in eastern Algeria killed at least 11 people, state radio reported Wednesday with the country still in shock from a suicide bomber who killed 43 people a day earlier.

At least 31 people were wounded in the latest attacks in the town of Bouira, one on a passenger bus and another near a military headquarters, Algerian radio said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but an Al-Qaeda group has staged several attacks in Algeria over the past year and has been involved in clashes with government forces in the oil and gas-rich state.

Bouira is part of a so-called “zone of death” it forms with Algiers, Tizi Ouzou and Boumerdes where attacks have been rife.

One bomb targetted a bus parked near the Sophie hotel, in the city centre. The second bomb went off near the military headquarters in Bouira, which is 120 kilometres (70 miles) southeast of Algiers.

The early morning blast blew out windows in the hotel and other nearby buildings. A security cordon was immediately thrown around the centre of Bouira, witnesses said.

The attacks came only a day after a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into the entrance of a police school killing 43 people and injuring 45 in Issers, also east of Algiers.

Most of the victims were university graduates waiting outside to take an entry exam in the hopes of joining the paramilitary police force.

On Sunday, armed Islamists ambushed a security force convoy at Skikda, 500 kilometers (300 miles) east of Algiers, killing eight police, three soldiers and a civilian, media reports said.

The Issers attack was the deadliest this year in Algeria and worse than the December 2007 attacks in Algiers against government and United Nations buildings, which killed 41 people and injured many others.

Those attacks were claimed by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), an Algeria-based group which last year declared allegiance to Al-Qaeda and renamed itself Al-Qaeda’s Branch in the Islamic Maghreb.

The government has reaffirmed its determination to “combat” terrorism and pursue its policy of national reconciliation, which has seen the pardoning of several Islamists.

Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni said after a visit to Issers on Tuesday that “the terrorists should know that the only way for them is to give themselves up.”

In a statement released late Tuesday, the government said: “As the president of the republic has said many times, the state will unflinchingly fight terrorism, with a strong determination until its total elimination in our country.”

It added: “At the same time, Algeria will not deviate from the path of national reconciliation chosen by the nation and which has already given major progress in the consolidation of security across the national territory.”

The wave of Islamist attacks has caused international concern, because of the Al-Qaeda involvement and Algeria’s importance as a supplier of natural gas.

China on Wednesday joined the international anger over the devastating suicide attack at the police academy.

“The Chinese government condemns this terrorist action, and we express deep condolences to the deceased,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters. “We firmly oppose terrorism in all forms, and we support the Algerian government’s efforts in combating terrorism and safeguarding national stability.”

The European Union, United States, Russia and France have all expressed concern at the events.

The Toronto International Film Festival is promising a lighter touch this year, both thematically and in the number of films presented, with domestic dramas and comedies prominent among the list of 312 features and short films unveiled on Tuesday.

This year’s festival is somewhat smaller than it was last year, when 352 films were shown, many of them political and war-themed.

Organizers also promise a healthy dose of Hollywood star power at the 33rd edition of the festival, with Brad Pitt, Ben Kingsley, Keira Knightly, Jennifer Aniston, and even basketball star LeBron James among the more than 500 stars and special guests expected to attend.

George Clooney was originally expected to attend, but the festival said he would not be coming.

The 10-day festival, which begins on September 4, is seen by many as the kick-off to Oscar season, and ranks with Cannes, Sundance, Venice and Berlin in influence.

Despite showing fewer films in total, the festival will feature 116 world premieres among the 249 full-length features, up from 101 world premieres last year.

All told, films from 64 countries will be screened, with more than 340,000 admissions expected.

Cameron Bailey, who took over as TIFF co-director this year from Noah Cowan, said organizers had deliberately trimmed the number of offerings to make the festival more manageable, and he also acknowledged a shift to more inward-looking films this year.

“(It’s) movies that are about more the domestic sphere, more about relationships between characters, family relationships, and less about the whole political sweep of what’s going on in the world,” he told Reuters.

GALA HIGHLIGHTS

Among the 20 gala pictures that will highlight the festival are Richard Eyre’s “The Other Man,” which stars Liam Neeson as a man who discovers his wife has been receiving e-mails and mobile messages from an unknown rival, played by Antonio Banderas.

As well, Joel and Ethan Coen, who won the best picture Oscar this year for the TIFF-screened “No Country for Old Men,” will present “Burn After Reading,” starring Hollywood heavyweights Pitt, Clooney and John Malkovich, in a comedy about a former CIA agent whose memoirs fall into the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees.

The festival will open with Canadian Paul Gross’s “Passchendaele,” which tells the tale of two brothers fighting in the disastrous World War One battle in France.

Among documentary entries will be “Religulous,” a tongue-in-cheek look at organized religion by humorist Bill Maher and “Seinfeld” producer Larry Charles, and “At the Edge of the World,” which follows a Canadian environmental activist and his boat in pursuit of Japanese whalers.

While the festival acts for some as a preview of late-season movie releases, the main business for many will be securing distribution rights for their movies.

Online retail sales in Britain rose by 11.3 percent in July compared to the month before as wet weather boosted online clothing sales while electrical sales also soared, a report said on Wednesday.

The IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index showed Britons spent over 4.8 billion pounds ($8.97 billion) online in July, the equivalent of 79 pounds for every person in the UK.

The survey showed shoppers continued to shop online despite pressures on disposable income. The figures were in sharp contrast to recent data from the British Retail Consortium, showing high street sales in July were down 0.9 percent on June.

“Gloomy market conditions have not dampened consumers’ appetite for shopping online. Online sales continue to show strong growth, particularly when compared to the tough trading conditions on the high street,” said Mike Petevinos, Head of Consulting for Retail at Capgemini UK.

Clothing sales increased by 23 percent during the month. However, alcohol sales showed slower year-on-year growth with less barbecue-related demand.

The electrical sector experienced its highest growth this year, boosted by demand for the new AppleiPhone 3G and flat screen televisions ahead of the Olympics.

Capgemini has forecast that between 30 percent and 50 percent of all retail sales will be online in the next five years.

Controversial fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar`s lawyer on Sunday refused to comment on the fresh legal notice sent by Pakistan Cricket Board to his client to pay a seven million rupees fine or forget playing in the Champions Trophy.

Akhtar`s lawyer Abid Hasan Minto said since his office has not as yet received a full copy of the legal notice he would not comment on the matter.

“We will study the notice and then take appropriate action,” Minto said.

The fast bowler was served a legal notice yesterday by the legal counsel of the board who said the fine had to be paid as per court orders or Akhtar would be dropped from the Pakistan squad for the Champions Trophy.

Akhtar was handed a ban of five years by the board in March which was reduced to 18 months by an appellate tribunal in June which, however, fined him seven million rupees.

He then filed a writ petition in the Lahore High Court asking for the ban and fine to be overturned. The court suspended the ban but has not passed any order on the fine. His petition will be heard from next month.

Sources close to Akhtar said the fast bowler was extremely disheartened after getting the fresh notice as he has started serious training for the Champions Trophy.

“He feels this is another attempt by some people in the board to cause him mental anguish and try to disturb his preparations for the tournament.”

A Somali staff member of the U.N.’s World Food Program has been abducted and killed in southern Somalia, the food agency said Monday,

The Rome-based agency said Abdulkadir Diad Mohamed, 33, was abducted Friday by unidentified men in the southern town of Dinsor and killed after trying to escape. The driver of the vehicle Mohamed was traveling in was also believed to have been killed, the agency said, adding the driver was not a staff member.

A cousin of the driver told The Associated Press on Sunday that he was abducted along with Mohamed and the driver, but managed to escape.

It took several days to confirm Mohamed’s death Friday because he was killed far from his duty station in Wajid, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Dinsor.

“I am shocked by this senseless and barbaric attack on one of our staff,” WFP director Josette Sheeran said.

World Food Program spokesman Marcus Prior told the AP the agency does not believe Mohamed’s death is related to recent attacks on aid workers. He said Mohamed was off duty and was not in a marked agency vehicle.

Five drivers working for a firm contracted to the agency have been killed this year and four aid workers have been kidnapped.

Somalia, which has not had an effective central government since 1991, has fallen into anarchy and violence.

On Monday, Islamic militants who have been fighting the current weak administration vowed to continue their insurgency until Ethiopian troops left the country.

Senior Islamic leader Sheik Abdulkadir Ali Umar said Monday that Islamic militants made that decision after a five-day meeting in southern Somalia of 78 delegates representing Islamic fighters across the country.

Umar said the Islamists will not be deterred by a leadership dispute within the opposition alliance to which they belong.

In July, hardliner Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys took over leadership of the alliance, deposing Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who has been seen as a moderate Islamic leader. The U.S. suspects Aweys of collaborating with al-Qaida, but Aweys denies any link to terror.

Islamic militants have been battling Somalia’s fragile government and its Ethiopian allies since December 2006 when Ethiopian troops ousted the Islamists from the capital and much of southern Somalia, which they had controlled for six months.

Thousands of civilians have died in the fighting and hundreds of thousands more have fled Mogadishu.