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Taliban Releases New Video of Captured US Soldier

   VOA News 07 April 2010

   Taliban  insurgents  have  released a new video of a man identified as
   U.S.  soldier  Bowe  Bergdahl, who was captured in Afghanistan on June
   30.
   In  the video, Bergdahl pleads for his release and return home, saying
   the war in Afghanistan is not worth the number of lives that have been
   lost.
   There  was  no  immediate  U.S.  military  comment on the latest video
   released  by  the Taliban. Top U.S. and Afghan officials have promised
   to do everything they can to find Bergdahl and bring him home.
   Earlier  Wednesday,  two members of Afghanistan's Independent Election
   Commission announced their resignation.
   A  presidential  spokesman,  Waheed  Omar, said IEC chairman Azizullah
   Ludin  did  not  wish  to  have  his  tenure  extended.   He said the
   commission's chief electoral officer, Daoud Ali Najafi, also resigned.
   Western nations have pressed Afghan President Hamid Karzai to overhaul
   and improve the election body.
   Last week, the Afghan president angered the international community by
   claiming  that  foreign governments and the United Nations were behind
   the fraud in the August 20 vote.
   Mr.  Karzai also reportedly said the Taliban will become a "legitimate
   resistance  movement" if outside meddling in Afghan affairs continues,
   and that he might join the group if outside pressure does not stop.
   On  Wednesday, his spokesman, Waheed Omar, said the president's office
   was  "shocked"  by the media reports and said the remarks "do not make
   sense."
   The  United States suggested Tuesday it might cancel a meeting between
   President  Barack Obama and President Karzai, scheduled for May 12, if
   the Afghan leader continues his anti-foreign rhetoric.
   In  violence  Wednesday,  NATO  said an Afghan civilian was killed and
   more  than  a dozen others were wounded in a roadside explosion near a
   NATO convoy in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
   NATO  also said one of its soldiers was killed in southern Afghanistan
   Wednesday, following an insurgent engagement.

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