(10 May 2009) SHOTLIST
1. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Afghan President Hamid Karzai entering news conference
2. Cutaway of photographer
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Hamid Karzai, Afghan President:
"Civilian casualties, of course, is a very serious matter for the Afghan people, also is a serious matter for our allies. It's something that the Afghan people want to be addressed effectively and sooner."
4. Cutaway of cameras
5. SOUNDBITE (German) Angela Merkel, German chancellor:
"We also talked about the controversial law which concerns Shiite women. I was happy to hear that there was a review of that law so that we hope that the points which made us worried are taken away. I want to thank you for your engagement in that matter."
6. Wide of presser
7. Cutaway of journalist
8. Merkel and Karzai shake hands and leave presser
STORYLINE
Afghans want to see effective efforts to stem civilian casualties in military operations in the country, President Hamid Karzai said on Sunday.
"It's something that the Afghan people want to be addressed effectively and sooner," the president told reporters in Berlin where he held talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Karzai spoke in general terms and did not refer explicitly to last Monday's US-Taliban battle in Farah province, which Afghan officials believe may have killed up to 130 civilians.
Afghanistan's leading human rights organisation said on Sunday it was investigating the possibility that white phosphorus was used in the battle.
The US military rejected speculation it had used the weapon but left open the possibility Taliban militants did.
Merkel, whose country has some 37-hundred troops in Afghanistan's relatively calm north, said Karzai had called for stepped-up efforts to train Afghan police and soldiers.
She also thanked the president for helping secure a review of a law intended to regulate family life inside Afghanistan's minority Shiite community, which critics say legalises marital rape.
The law stirred an international outcry and public criticism from Merkel.
It says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill and regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave the house by herself.
Karzai's announcement last Monday that he would suspend the legislation appeared to put to rest speculation that he signed the law to pander to conservatives ahead of this summer's presidential election.
Though the law would apply only to the country's Shiites, who make up less than 20 percent of Afghanistan's 30 (M) million people, many fear its passage marked a return to Taliban-style oppression of women.
The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001, required women to wear all-covering burqas and banned them from leaving home unless accompanied by a male relative.
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