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Karzai warns of rise in terrorism

DAVOS, Switzerland - Afghanistan's president warned Wednesday that the whole world could suffer from the "wildfire" of terrorism engulfing his region, a grim message for a meeting of political and business leaders already fretting over the threat of global recession.

Formally opening the World Economic Forum, Hamid Karzai gave a sobering rundown of recent attacks attributed to Islamic extremists - among them the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and bombings in Afghanistan and Pakistan that have killed hundreds, including many children.

With militant violence still on the rise in the two nations six years after the ouster of the Taliban, the trend "bodes terribly badly for the whole world," Karzai said.

In an apparent allusion to Pakistan - whose president, Pervez Musharraf, originally supported the Taliban - Karzai called terrorism "a venomous snake that some among us tried to nurture and befriend at the expense of others, which I hope we realize now was a mistake."

Musharraf, now a U.S. ally in the war on extremist groups, has often been accused by Karzai of not doing enough to shut down sanctuaries for Taliban fighters in Pakistan's tribal region along the border with Afghanistan.

Musharraf is attending the conference in Davos as well, as part of a European tour seeking to reassure the West that he is in control of his country after months of political instability and increased attacks by Islamic militants.

Both leaders held separate talks Wednesday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but there was no indication they would meet with each other.

Terror blacklist denounced

Lawmakers from 47 European countries on Wednesday harshly criticized the United Nations and European Union procedures used to blacklist people and organizations suspected of links with terrorism, calling them arbitrary and undemocratic. The Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly, meeting in Strasbourg, France, urged the United Nations and the European Union to overhaul the rules to ensure individuals and organizations that are put on the list have a right to appeal and seek compensation if their civil liberties have been breached. The Council of Europe, a leading human rights watchdog, has no executive powers.

Also

Cell planned attack: An Islamic militant cell broken up over the weekend had planned a suicide attack targeting Barcelona's public transport network, Spanish Judge Ismael Moreno of the National Court said Wednesday. He ordered 10 suspects jailed pending further investigation and freed two others. He said three of those ordered jailed had been planning a suicide attack.

Convictions overturned: An appeals court in the Netherlands on Wednesday overturned the convictions of seven men on charges they belonged to a terrorist network. The seven were associates of Mohammed Bouyeri, who is serving a life sentence for the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh. The court conceded the men possessed and studied texts endorsing violence in the name of Islam, but said prosecutors had taken them out of context.

Times wires

[Last modified January 24, 2008, 01:32:20]