Sunday,  September 2, 2012 • Vol. 13--No. 049 • 28 of 33 •  Other Editions

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allies, officials said Sunday.
• There have been 34 insider attacks this year -- at least 12 in August alone -- that have killed 45 international troops, throwing doubt on the ability of Afghan and coalition forces to live and work together during a key time in the transition to Afghan control of security. One of the pillars of the international troop drawdown is for allied forces to hand over responsibility for the country's security to Afghans by the end of 2014.
• Lt. Col. John Harrell, a spokesman for U.S. special operations forces in Afghanistan, said the pause in training affects about
1,000 trainees of the Afghan Local Police, a militia backed by the government in Kabul.
• "The training of the ALP recruits has been paused while we go through this re-vetting process, to take a look at this process to see if there's anything that we can improve," Harrell said. "It may take a month, it may take two months, we don't know."
• Afghan Local Police forces that have already been trained will continue to operate, and the government will continue to recruit new members, Harrell said.
• ___

Pakistan police arrest Muslim cleric accused of planting evidence in Christian blasphemy case

• ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Pakistani police arrested a Muslim cleric who allegedly

tampered with evidence submitted in the case against a Christian girl accused of desecrating a Quran, an investigating officer said Sunday, the latest twist in a religiously charged affair that has focused attention on the country's harsh blasphemy laws.
• The case against the Christian girl accused of burning pages of a Quran has sparked controversy at home and abroad in large part because of her age and questions about her mental capacity. It also has triggered an exodus of hundreds of Christians from the neighborhood where the girl lived, fearful of retribution by their Muslim neighbors outraged by the alleged desecration of Islam's holy book.
• The cleric, Khalid Chishti, was arrested late Saturday for allegedly planting pages of a Quran in a shopping bag containing burned papers and ash that had been carried by the Christian girl, said Munir Jaffery, an investigating officer in the case. The bag was then submitted as evidence to the police.
• Jaffery said a member of the mosque where the cleric works came forward Saturday and said man said the imam had placed the evidence in the bag. According to

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