THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
5A
》 AFGHANISTAN
Abdul Khaleq/ASSOCIATED PRESS
An Afghan police officer, right, checks one of the passengers, as they enter Lashkar Gah City, the provincial capital of Helmand province Tuesday NATO-led troops launched an offensive against Taliban militants in a volatile southern Afghan province where hundreds of militant fighters have amassed The operation, which will eventually involve 4,500 NATO troops and 1,000 Afghan soldiers, was launched Monday at the request of the Afghan government and will focus on the northern region of Helmand province. Col. Tom Collins, the spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said Tuesday.
NATO advances on Taliban
BY FISNIK ABRASHI ASSOCIATED PRESS
KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO-led troops launched their biggest offensive yet in Afghanistan, advancing toward the Taliban in a southern stronghold for drug traffickers where hundreds of fighters have massed in recent months. One NATO soldier and four suspected militants were killed Tuesday in combat in the south.
The operation, which will eventually involve 4,500 NATO troops and 1,000 Afghan soldiers, was launched Monday at the request of the Afghan government and will focus on the northern part of Helmand province, Col. Tom Collins, the spokesman for NATOS International Security Assistance Force, said Tuesday.
NATO hopes it can earn the trust of a population long supportive of the Taliban, setting conditions for President Hamid Karzai's government to establish control in the world's biggest opium producing area, which has drawn hundreds of militants, including those from Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Collins said.
The offensive "is focused on improving security in areas where Taliban extremists, narco-traffickers and foreign terrorists are currently operating," Collins said. "Once the security situation
is improved, we will begin short- and long-term reconstruction projects"
Collins said NATO was working closely with the government to prevent civilian casualties, which have dogged military operations here and caused an outcry by Karzai and other Afghanis. Up to 20 civilian deaths in three incidents Sunday and Monday can be contributed to U.S. or NATO military action, Afghan officials and witnesses say.
Dubbed Operation Achilles, the offensive is NATO's largest ever in the country. But it will involve only half the number of soldiers that fought in a U.S. offensive in the same region just nine months ago, when some 11,000 U.S. led troops attacked fighters during Operation Mountain Thrust.
Collins said that although thousands of British, American, Canadian and Dutch troops were returning to the same region, the situation was "fundamentally different" this year. He said NATO had a much better opportunity to establish a permanent presence because more troops were in the country. Some 1,500 U.S. troops will take part in Achilles.
The government has little control in many parts of northern Helmand, and the British troops stationed there battle almost daily with militants. U.S. intelligence officials say there are now
more fighters in the province than anywhere else in the country. British troops have also been battling militants in the nearby district of Kajaki to enable repairs on a hydroelectric dam, which supplies close to 2 million Afghanis with electricity.
》 ART MUSEUM
An ISAF statement said one soldier died Tuesday in the south during combat operations, but it gave no further details. Collins said he did not know if the fallen soldier was involved in the new operation Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, said four suspected militants were killed and two captured at the outset of the operation.
New Louvre looks to open in Persian Gulf
Kamran Jebreili/ ASSOCIATED PRESS
French Minister for Culture and Communications Renaud Donnelieu de Vabres, left, listens to French architect, Jean Nouvel, second right, as he explains his design of Abu Dhabi Louvre museum at the Emirates palace hotel after the signing ceremony between the government of Abu Dhabi and France for a 30-year cultural accord which will see the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum created within the Cultural district of Saadat Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
BY JIM KRANE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — France's storied Louvre museum said Tuesday it will open a new Louvre in this Persian Gulf boomtown, prompting outcries from some who accuse the museum of shilling France's patrimony for $1.3 billion in oil money.
The 30-year agreement, signed by French Culture Minister Renaud Donnédieu de Vabres and the head of Abu Dhabi's tourism authority, Sheik Sultan bin Tahmoon Al Nahyan, opens the way for the Louvre Abu Dhabi to display thousands of works from some of France's best museums, such as the Louvre, the Georges Pompidou Center, the Musee d'Orsay and Versailles.
The museum, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, will be erected on the Abu Dhabi waterfront, opening sometime after 2012.
Donnedieu de Vabres promised that the Paris Louvre would not sell any of its 35,000-piece collection, nor would the deal weaken France's cultural policy or its museums.
But prominent figures in the French art world have accused their government of exploiting art for trade and diplomacy and said lending art will overburden French museums. Led by the art historian Didier Rykner, opponents of the Abu Dhabi scheme collected 4,700 signatures to protest it.
The ruling sheiks of Abu Dhabi
have agreed to spend a staggering sum to bring the Louvre to this fast-developing Arab capital. France will receive $525 million for the use of the Louvre brand alone, a gift of $33 million to renovate a wing of the Paris Louvre. The price of building Nouvel's museum design and is likely to add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost, pushing the overall project close to $2 billion.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi can expect a loan of about 300 French works during its first year, which would
France has solid reasons for bringing a Louvre branch to Abu Dhabi, Donniedieu de Vabres said. He said the museum will help reinvigorate France's postcolonial stature in the Arab world.
shrink as the museum acquires its own collection, organizers said.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi will have to breach significant cultural barriers before it opens because representations of the human figure — even when clothed — can be a religious taboo in the Muslim world.
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