China and Russia lead group talks focused on security

Mr Putin says Russia and China enjoy a 'mutually beneficial, mutually trusting' relationship

China and Russia are leading a group summit, with talks focusing on security and development in central Asia.

The stability of Afghanistan is a ''common concern'', said Russian President Valdimir Putin.

Leaders of four other countries, Iran, Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan are attending the two-day talks in Beijing.

Several meetings on the sidelines are also expected and Mr Putin has had talks with China's President Hu Jintao.

The six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) group including the two economic power-houses, and the central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, was formed in 2001.

Afghanistan has been invited to the meeting as a guest, while Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan and India are observer members.

"Strengthening political cooperation within the framework of the SCO must also strengthen cooperation in the economic sphere," Mr Putin said in an editorial in China's People's Daily newspaper on Tuesday.

The group was formed to curb extremism in the region and enhance border security. It was widely viewed as a countermeasure to curb the influence of western alliances such as Nato.

The SCO then began to develop co-ordinated measures to stabilise their economies and maintain growth in Eurasia through multilateral trade and co-operation.

China said on Tuesday that the group was likely to give the go ahead for a plan to crack down on terrorism.

'Strategic partner'

Nations attending the summit are also expected to further ties on the sides.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is due to meet Mr Hu, as their countries are expected to announce ''a new strategic level" of relations, Kabul's foreign ministry said earlier.

The group meetings would likely discuss issues of stability and growth in Afghanistan as Nato forces prepare to pull out of the country.

Mr Putin will also meet his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ahead of talks hosted by Russia to seek diplomatic solutions over Iran's nuclear programme.

On Tuesday, China and Russia reinforced their opposition to foreign intervention in Syria and urged support for UN envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan.

Both countries have twice blocked UN resolutions critical of Damascus.

Beijing currently holds the UN Security Council's rotating presidency, and Russia and China have long resisted pressure to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power amid ongoing unrest.

Beijing and Moscow also signed a series of political and trade agreements.

''China is Russia's strategic partner. We enjoy mutually beneficial, mutually trusting, open cooperation in all fields," Mr Putin told reporters.

Mr Putin had said ahead of the trip that he wanted to further boost booming bilateral trade, which reached $84bn (£55bn) last year.

Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18336502

U.S. drone kills al Qaida's No 2

Al-Qaida militant Abu Yahia al-Libi was killed in a drone attack, the US claims

America has claimed its most significant victory in its controversial targeted bombing campaign after a drone strike in Pakistan killed al Qaida's second-in-command.

The killing of Abu Yahya al-Libi was also the biggest setback to the terror network since the death of Osama bin Laden.

Al-Libi was considered a media-savvy, charismatic leader with religious credentials who was helping preside over the transformation of a secretive group based in Pakistan and Afghanistan into a global movement aimed at winning converts - and potential attackers - from Somalia to the Philippines.

This was not the first time the US had al-Libi in its sights. He was originally captured a decade ago and held by American forces at the Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan until he escaped in 2005 in an embarrassing security breach.

Soon afterwards he began appearing in videos in which he talked about the lessons he learned while watching his captors, whom he described as cowardly, lost and alienated.

White House spokesman Jay Carney called al-Libi's death a "major blow" to the group and described him as an operational leader and a "general manager" of al Qaida.

He said al-Libi had a range of experience that would be hard for al Qaida to replicate and brought the terror network closer than ever to its ultimate demise. "His death is part of the degradation that has been taking place to core al Qaida during the past several years and that degradation has depleted the ranks to such an extent that there's no clear successor," Mr Carney said.

Libyan-born al-Libi, who was thought to be in his late 40s, was killed on Monday morning in a village in north-western Pakistan, a tribal area bordering Afghanistan that is home to many al Qaida and Taliban members and their support networks.

Al-Libi, who was considered a hero in militant circles because of his escape from the American military prison, was elevated to al Qaida's number two spot when Ayman al-Zawahri replaced bin Laden. As al Qaida's de facto general manager, he was responsible for running the group's day-to-day operations in Pakistan's tribal areas and managed outreach to al Qaida's regional affiliates.

He was influential and popular within al Qaida because of his "scholarly credentials, street cred from having escaped from Bagram, charisma and his easy-going, tribal speaking style", said Jarret Brachman, a counter-terrorism expert who had studied al-Libi for the past seven years. "People may have revered Zawahri, but they loved Abu Yahya," he said.

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5je4yR7lkNmOfpan1HSi4ZbeGIflw?docId=N0101201338922079021A