Secretary defends role in Afghanistan

By The World Today  |  July 12, 2009

LONDON - Foreign Secretary David Miliband defended Britain’s role in Afghanistan yesterday after fighting claimed eight soldiers’ lives in 24 hours. The deaths pushed Britain’s overall toll in Afghanistan to 184 - five more than the total number of British deaths in the Iraq war. Miliband told the BBC that it is essential to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming an “incubator for terrorism’’ that serves as a launching pad for attacks on the West. (AP)

SREBRENICA - Tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims prayed for the dead in Srebrenica yesterday, the 14th anniversary of Europe’s worst massacre since World War II, and buried hundreds of victims recently recovered from mass graves. Thousands of family members laid the 534 victims into pits next to the existing 3,297 graves at the Srebrenica-Potocari memorial center. Visitors and dignitaries prayed for the 8,100 Muslim men and boys who were killed in Srebrenica over several days in 1995 when Serb forces overran the town. (AP)

URUMQI - China released a breakdown yesterday of the death toll from communal rioting, saying most of the 184 killed were from the Han Chinese majority, an announcement that only fueled suspicion among Muslim Uighurs that many more of their people died. The government’s Xinhua News Agency cited provincial officials as saying 137 were Han, while 46 were Uighurs and one was a Hui, another Muslim group. (AP)