Karzai asks delegates to stay after loya jirga

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Hamid Karzai, who was selected to lead the country for the next 18 months by the traditional grand council gathered here, tried on Saturday to reach out to all of the nation's ethnic and regional groups as he asked the delegates to form a national assembly to work with him.

"We should create a council from the delegates here that should work with us over the next 18 months," he said. "They should hold a hand of anger over me so I do not go too far."

In a well-received announcement on Saturday, he asked delegates to stay in Kabul after the loya jirga to meet with him in regional groups to talk about their specific problems.

Although the loya jirga is scheduled to end today, members of the commission in charge of it said delegates would probably meet for an extra day.

Aid groups threaten to leave Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan -- International aid workers are threatening to leave northern Afghanistan after a female worker was gang raped, a clinic was attacked by gunmen and a vehicle carrying food for the hungry was shot up, the United Nations said Saturday.

"In particular, the U.N. staff are now reporting an alarming level of violence that is affecting both the personal security and confidence of local residents, and the ability of aid workers to assist them," U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said.

U.S. engineers see little need to stay in Philippines

TIPO-TIPO, Philippines -- U.S. military engineers said Saturday they are almost done with infrastructure projects on a southern Philippine island where a Muslim extremist group is based, adding that there is little need to extend their stay.

Lt. Col. Brian Hearnsberger, who heads 340 Marine engineers and Navy Seabees, said he expects to finish the infrastructure projects by early next month.

The projects are part of a six-month counterterrorism exercise involving U.S. and Filipino soldiers.

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