Tareq Aziz discharged

AMMAN: A lawyer for Iraq's jailed ex-deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz said on Tuesday his client has been discharged from a US military hospital after his health improved following a stroke. "I have called contacts in Baghdad today and they told me that Aziz left the hospital three days ago after his health condition improved," Amman-based lawyer Badie Aref told AFP. "His situation got better to the extent that he was able to appear before Iraq's criminal court on Monday for some questioning and he spoke to the judge," he said without elaborating. Aziz, who turned himself in to US forces in April 2003, was moved from jail to an American military hospital in the US base at Balad, 70 km north of Baghdad, after a stroke two weeks ago. The 73-year-old is only one of Saddam Hussein's few surviving cohorts after the late dictator's henchman Ali Hassan al-Majid -- better known as "Chemical Ali" -- was hanged in Iraq on Monday for a poison gas attack against Kurds in 1988.

NATO rep for Kabul

BRUSSELS: Britain's ambassador in Kabul will be NATO's new civilian representative in Afghanistan, alliance diplomats said on Tuesday, ahead of a major international conference on the country. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will publicly present Mark Sedwill, who will have a beefed-up role coordinating civilian efforts in Afghanistan with the alliance, at a press conference in Brussels at 1445 GMT on Tuesday. "The new appointee succeeds Ambassador Fernando Gentilini who served as NATO's fourth senior civilian representative in Afghanistan from May 2008 to January 2010," NATO said in a statement announcing the press conference. Sedwill, 45, will be "responsible for carrying forward the political-military aspects of the alliance's assistance to the Afghan government. "He will work closely with the Afghan government, ISAF (NATO-led International Security Assistance Force), the United Nations and other key stakeholders in Afghanistan," it said.