The day after the sacking of General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, a variety of reactions emerged. His replacement at the head of what is officially called the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) by General David Petraeus calmed the nerves of some and inspired hope in others. But many in the Afghan capital – most likely including President Hamid Karzai, who considered McChrystal his chief American ally – are deeply pessimistic about what’s to come. “If [McChrystal] is fired, the international effort in Afghanistan will become a headless chicken as it was before McChrystal’s arrival,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul, shortly before receiving confirmation of the dismissal on Wednesday night. “If he leaves, I would be happy to leave too. Because he’s the best ISAF commander we’ve had in years.”

The sentiment was echoed in both Afghan and foreign circles across Kabul on Thursday, even as many conceded that Petraeus, who as chief of Centcom oversees both Iraq and Afghanistan and is McChrystal’s boss, was the best possible substitute. President Obama sacked McChrystal on Wednesday after an article in Rolling Stone magazine portrayed an atmosphere derisive of the Obama Administration, fostered by McChrystal’s circle of officers in Afghanistan. (See pictures of the rise and fall of General Stanley McChrystal.)

Some Afghans in the capital were confident that the ongoing U.S. troop surge would not be disrupted. “One superb general is being replaced by another. Therefore, continuity of policy is ensured,” says Ashraf Ghani, a former Afghan Finance Minister and the third runner-up in the 2009 presidential race. “I think this is probably one of the smoothest transitions in military history.” Still, Karzai had personally lobbied in the final hours on behalf of the commander whom many here deem to be his only friend in the U.S. Administration. On Thursday, the Afghan media expressed regret for the exit of a commander they called “effective” and praised his efforts to lower civilian casualties. They also fretted over the challenge of continuity, at a time when the war effort is floundering. (See how the U.S. military is divided on McChrystal’s ouster.)

“Was it necessary to fire McChrystal in the current situation in Afghanistan?” an editorial in the Persian and Pashto daily 8 in the Morning asked. It said the dismissal of Karzai’s only ally among the Americans was a bad sign, but more troubling was what it revealed about the U.S.-led effort. “The conflicts amongst officials on Obama’s political team make one issue clear: they have never worked as a team … Internal conflict calls the American task in Afghanistan into question. This creates mistrust towards the American team.”

Many Afghan officials lamented McChrystal’s loss, even though his replacement, Petraeus, is the father of the modern counterinsurgency doctrine. But others insist the counterinsurgency strategy is flawed. “Working with Karzai means that you’ll continue with the dysfunction of the Afghan government, you’ll continue with the corruption,” says Haroun Meer, a former researcher at the Afghan Center for Research and Policy and a candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections. (Can President Obama and General Petraeus work together?)

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LOS ANGELES – A former Bay Area transit officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man told jurors Thursday during his murder trial that training he received didn’t emphasize the possibility of mistaking his stun gun with his handgun.

But that’s what his lawyer claims happened on an Oakland train platform on New Year’s Day 2009 when Johannes Mehserle pulled out his .40-caliber handgun and shot Oscar Grant, 22.

Mehserle’s surprise testimony in the 10-day trial is the first time he has spoken publicly about shooting Grant as he lay face down on the train platform at the Fruitvale station.

Mehserle, 28, has pleaded not guilty to murder and has since resigned from Bay Area Rapid Transit. The trial was moved from Alameda County because of intense media coverage and racial tensions.

On direct examination by defense lawyer Michael Rains, the brawny Mehserle, who stands 6 feet, 4 inches, said he received Taser training in December 2008 and had only pulled it out once while on duty in the month before the shooting.

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TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Stephanie Foster wanted a baby so badly that when she suffered another miscarriage last fall, she didn’t tell her husband.

Instead, police say Foster, 34, spent months stuffing a pillow inside her clothes to feign pregnancy, forging birth certificates and attending baby showers as she plotted to kidnap a newborn to pass off as her own.

“She didn’t want to tell her husband because he was so elated that they finally were going to have a child,” Vigo County Sheriff Jon Marvel said. When her husband asked to feel the baby move, Foster would jostle a paintbrush she’d slipped inside the pillow, Marvel said.

Police say Foster’s elaborate hoax ended violently Wednesday when she stabbed a couple at their home as their month-old baby slept in the living room. Now, the baby is staying with relatives while his parents recover, and Foster sits in a county jail cell awaiting formal charges.

Foster, who does not yet have an attorney, appeared by video Thursday in Vigo Superior Court, where Judge Michael J. Lewis ordered her held without bond. She said little during the hearing as investigators described a woman who spent months planning how to make her fake pregnancy look real.

Her husband, Dwayne Foster, declined to comment Thursday at his home in a close knit rural area where neighbors would only say they’d also believed Stephanie Foster was pregnant.

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CAIRO (AFP) –
Egypt aims to achieve 5.8 percent economic growth in the fiscal year that that begins in July, the ministry of economic development said on Thursday.

Egypt is targetting “real economic growth of 5.8 percent,” the ministry said on its website.

It also hopes to attract direct foreign investment of eight billion dollars (6.5 billion euros).

Investment Minister Mahmud Modieddin said earlier this month that Egypt should see economic growth of up to 5.5 percent for the fiscal year 2009-2010, driven in particular by the construction sector.

The economy grew by 4.7 percent in 2008-2009, a marked slowdown following the sharp growth of around seven percent witnessed in the three previous years, according to figures published by the International Monetary Fund.

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SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea threatened to increase punishment for an American sentenced to hard labor for illegally entering the country, linking his case to U.S. criticism of Pyongyang over the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship.

Aijalon Mahli Gomes, from Boston, was sentenced in April to eight years of hard labor and fined $700,000 for entering the country illegally and for an unspecified “hostile act.”

The North is examining what harsher measures to take against Gomes under a wartime law, and would be compelled to consider applying the law if the U.S. persists in its “hostile approach,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday.

Thaleia Schlesinger, a spokeswoman for Gomes’ family in Boston, said they had not heard the news and did not immediately have a comment.

North Korea has freed three other Americans detained for illegal entry, but ruled out Gomes’ release amid tensions over the March sinking of a South Korean warship that Seoul and Washington have blamed on the North.

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