Based in Singapore, Eco-Business.com?is the leading portal for cleantech and sustainable business in Asia Pacific, providing its readers with regional news & opinion, and offering its clients a range of online marketing solutions.
We?re growing fast and looking for a dynamic, target-driven B2B sales professional to join us as Sales Manager and sell our full range of ?off-the-shelf? marketing products and services.
This is a key role with the company, so you must have a history of success in media sales, a passion for online media, and a keen interest in ? and at the very minimum a basic understanding of ? environmental sustainability and how it relates to the business world.
The following experience will be very useful to this job application:
Online advertising sales for a B2B portal
Use of a CRM system for sales administration
Events industry (workshops/conferences)
Sales of commissioned editorial
Strong social media skills
Production of company marketing collaterals
Selling and managing research projects
Asian languages other than English
Managing team members
You must be well organised, have excellent written and spoken English, a relaxed and confident phone manner, solid PC & internet skills, and a sharp eye for detail. On top of this, you must have a positive and engaging personal manner (for face-to-face client meetings), and the drive to succeed in this role.
The right candidate will be rewarded with strong support, recognition, fast progression, a flexible work environment, and an attractive salary package including an industry-beating commission structure.
This role is based in Singapore. Immediate interview and start possible.
To apply please email your CV and a covering letter explaining why you would be best for this role, to james@eco-business.com.
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Is it true that Tim Cook never wanted to sue Samsung?
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Weekend Highlights: Reuters explores Apple's complicated relationship with Samsung in Frenemies for life; The New York Times is back with the curved glass iOS watch rumor; Over at Fortune, Philip Elmer-DeWitt considers Apple's erroneous analysts as prisoners of momentum; The Macalope considers the Microsoft Surface Pro and MacBook Air in Just Asking; While everyone is focused on Apple's future in China, another sleeping giant awakes: India, where iPhone sales are reported to have grown 400% in three months ? reports aplenty in our Apple/Macintosh, and Op/Ed sections; meanwhile, hedge fund wizard suing Apple to unleash cash hoard to investors, Apple releases statement, saying preferred stock is under consideration, coverage in our Apple/Macintosh, and Finances sections; The Motley Fool's Marcus Vilkas thinks he knows how Apple's TV "will transform the industry"; Forbes' Hadyn Shaughnessy says Apple has an innovation problem, that of finding "a new category-busting product like the iPhone"; on Thursday, Apple, Adobe release emergency patches for Flash Zero Day security hole; what to do with buggy play counts and smart playlists in iTunes?; would an iCloud server give Apple a leg up in the private cloud space?; StatCounter data drops Nokia from first place to third behind Apple, Samsung; one by one e-book defendants settle with the DOJ, the latest being Macmillan, leaving Apple alone to fight; AppleTell wraps up 2013's Macworld/iWorld conference; jog down memory lane to the pre-fashionable Apple; Woz warns Apple falling behind Samsung; new report suggests iPhone 6 will feature 5G WiFi chipset, and rumors suggest it'll be a 5" model; and more rumors predict iPhone 5S will arrive along side the bigger iPhone 6 in 2013.
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AppleCare/Troubleshooting
"Friday Q&A: Restricting Time Machine's Size"?TechRadar UK?2/9
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"Adobe Releases Flash Player Update to Patch Security Holes as Apple Blocks Earlier Versions"?MacRumors?2/8
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"Smart playlists, buggy play counts, and iTunes Match"?Macworld?2/8
"MacMost Now 824: Handling Multiple Layers Of Audio In iMovie 11"?MacMost?2/8
"Apple IPads Neutered for U.S. Government in CACI Mobile Push: CACI International Inc. has altered 'thousands' of Apple Inc. iPads so they can be used securely by the U.S. government, according to Dan Allen, CACI's chief executive officer."?Bloomberg?2/8
"Home Depot abandoning BlackBerry platform in favor of Apple's iPhone and iOS"?AppleInsider?2/8
"iPhone 5 fails to boost Apple's market share in China: Lenovo became one of the world's top five smartphone vendors because of high shipments in China"?Macworld UK?2/8
"Apple and Samsung devices displace Nokia worldwide for first time in terms of Internet usage, says StatCounter"?DigiTimes?2/8
"Digitimes Research: Global tablet shipments to suffer 20% drop in 1Q13"?DigiTimes?2/8
"Foxconn January revenues down over 8% on year"?DigiTimes?2/8
"Apple To Fight US Alone Over Alleged E-Book Price Fixing As Final Publisher Settles"?App Advice?2/8
"Apple's the Last Defendant After Last Publisher Settles E-Book Antitrust Suit"?The Atlantic Wire?2/8
"Apple Alone Fighting DOJ E-Book Suit After Macmillan Settlement"?AllThingsD?2/8
"Macmillan, sole e-book publishing holdout, settles with Justice"?Ars Technica?2/8
"Ebook price-fixing: Macmillan settles with DoJ, Apple fights on"?The Register?2/8
"iPhone is 'behind' in smart phone race, Apple co-founder says"?Crave @ CNET?2/8
"Woz says Apple is falling behind, iPhone 5S and 6 at Chinese suppliers says source, Skype app updated"?iPhone Buzz?2/8
"Your smartphone knows which side of the brain you're using: The iDichotic iPhone app appears to be as reliable as traditional lab tests in determining which side of the brain is most involved in language processing."?CNET News?2/8
"Wrapping up Macworld/iWorld 2013, and looking ahead to 2014"?AppleTell?2/8
"Which apps will drain your battery and data plan? Verizon's got a list"?GigaOM?2/8
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"LibreOffice 4.0 ships with new features, better looks"?The Register?2/8
"AVG finds 11 year-old creating malware to steal game passwords: Kid Canadian pwned gamers"?Techworld?2/8
"Report: Brett Ratner to Produce Farmville Animated Series"?PC Magazine?2/8
"Blast from the past: Twitter search now finds old tweets"?Los Angeles Times [Paid Membership Required]?2/8
"Activision Blizzard warns over consoles"?Financial Times [Paid Membership Required]?2/8
"Toshiba ships first NAND flash chips with faster transfer standard"?IDG News Service?2/8
"Adobe Issues Emergency Patch For Flash Player Zero-Day Flaws"?CRN?2/8
"Renesas Widens Loss Forecast on Job Cuts, Chip-Demand Slump"?Bloomberg?2/8
"Intel-based phablet on the way from Asus"?CNET News?2/8
"Google Drives into web hosting: Google Drive has turned on a feature that lets the cloud storage service become a limited web host."?The Register?2/8
"iMore sHow Tonight. 6pm PT. 9pm ET. Be here!"?iMore?8:15 PM
"Macworld 2013: Cloak Keeps You Safe While Surfing Away From HomeWith An Easy VPN"?MacVoicesTV?10:40 AM
"Macworld/iWorld Video: Mac gaming"?Macworld?2/9
"Gene Steinberg meets veteran Mac developer Lloyd L. Chambers, The Loop's Jim Dalrymple, and Laptop magazine's Avram Piltch, this week on The Tech Night Owl LIVE!"?The Tech Night Owl LIVE?2/8
"Ditch Your Mac And Roll iPad Only?We'll Tell You How On Our All-New CultCast"?Cult of Mac?2/8
"Moshi shows off Versacover for iPad mini at Macworld|iWorld 2013"?iMore?2/8
"Macworld 2013 ? Other World Computing's Super-Protective iPhone Case and Newest SSD"?MacVoicesTV?2/8
"Some iPhone Users Complaining Of iOS 6.1 Battery Drain Problem"?Forbes?2/8
"iPhone users, U.K. carrier report bugs after iOS 6.1 upgrade: Battery drain and problems with Microsoft Exchange, plus 3G service on one European carrier, are causing headaches for iPhone users."?CNET News?2/8
"iPad 5 rumour rollup for the week ending 8 February: The most recent iPad 5 rumors draw fresh hope from newly announced Apple patents, from unnamed industry sources, and from pure wishful thinking"?Network World?2/8
"Rumor: Apple to Release iPhone 5S and 5-Inch iPhone 6 in 2013"?BrightWire?2/8
"Chinese Source Claims iPhone 5S and 5-Inch iPhone 6 to Launch in 2013"?MacRumors?2/8
"iPhone 5S and 5-inch iPhone 6 reportedly spotted at Apple supplier"?iDownload Blog?2/8
"Rumor: Apple planning 'iPhone 5S' and new 5-inch 'iPhone 6' for 2013"?AppleInsider?2/8
"iPhone 5S, 5-inch iPhone 6 allegedly spotted at supplier"?CNET News?2/8
"Chinese source claims iPhone 5S as well as a 5-inch iPhone 6 to launch this year"?iMore?2/8
"Apple Recruits Former Senior Researcher at LG Display"?BrightWire?2/8
"Apple Hires Senior OLED Expert From LG Display"?Cult of Mac?2/8
"Apple hires AMOLED TV Application Expert James (Jueng-Gil) Lee from LG"?9 to 5 Mac?2/8
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"iOS 6.1 banned from corporate servers due to Exchange snafu"?ZDNet?2/8
"evasi0n jailbreaks record 7 million iOS devices in four days"?9 to 5 Mac?2/8
"Latest iOS jailbreak: Nearly 7 million served"?Ars Technica?2/8
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"Apple patent filing is for securely recovering a computing device"?AppleDailyReport?2/8
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"Uber Racer 3D -Sandstorm For iPhone and iPad Is Temporarily Available For Free (Normally $0.99)"?Apple Sliced?2/9
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"Word of the Rings For iPhone and iPad Is Free Today (Was $0.99)"?Apple Sliced?2/9
"How can I show a client that their code sucks? Everything is broken but if it works for your clients, they may not believe you."?Ars Technica?2/9
"These Weird Searches Make Google Return Nothing But Porn"?Gizmodo?2/9
"Freebie Friday: Get a 50GB Box cloud account for free/This is quite possibly the best cloud-storage giveaway ever. What's the catch? I'll let you know when I find one."?CNET Reviews?2/8
"Goodbye Surface RT, hello Surface Pro: I won't miss getting work done again"?ZDNet?2/8
"BYOD--the trojan horse to make you work more"?ZDNet?2/8
"E-ink at your fingertips: The future keyboard?"?ZDNet?2/8
"Forrester's top 15 emerging technologies to watch"?ZDNet?2/8
"Beware the Big Errors of 'Big Data'"?Wired?2/8
"5 things every computer user needs to know how to do"?USA Today?2/8
"Seagate Wireless Plus Review: A Terabyte for Your Tablet"?Techland?2/8
"Ubuntu Invites Phone Makers to Cheat on Google: A mobile version of the world's most widely used Linux operating system shows promise, but it will face stiff competition."?Technology Review?2/8
"The Galaxy Note 2: A Giant Step for Android Phones"?Tech.pinions?2/8
"Can Legacy Dual-Core CPUs Drive Modern GPUs?"?HotHardware?2/8
"Six good reasons to download LibreOffice 4.0: Want to control your presentation from your Android phone? Then this is the (free) suite for you."?PCWorld?2/8
"Windows 8 tablet alternatives to Microsoft's Surface Pro"?PCWorld?2/8
"Always-On DRM, Used Game Restrictions Will Destroy Next Xbox, PlayStation"?PC Magazine?2/8
"3 Great Instagram Tips from Model Coco Rocha"?PC Magazine?2/8
"Instagram's new Feed feature is easy to use and ad-free for now"?Los Angeles Times [Paid Membership Required]?2/8
"Get used to it: The post-PC employee has arrived"?InfoWorld?2/8
"Inside the shadowy underground of 'anything, anywhere' cloud-based printing"?Macworld?2/8
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"Finally found the perfect iPad case. (at Toys'R'Us / Babies'R'Us)"?jffcmr?2/9
"Adobe VideoBite leads iOS Apps of the Week"?Appolicious?8:17 PM
"Tamagotchi Coming To iOS"?Macgasm?8:59 AM
"Live Your Career: Career Cat available now on the Apple iTunes App Store"?prMac?8:59 AM
"ProCutX For iPad Lets You Control Final Cut Pro X On Mac"?Redmond Pie?2/9
"From Mailbox to Tweetbot: 7 iOS apps to check out this weekend/Both new and well-established iOS apps share the spotlight."?Ars Technica?2/9
"This Week's Must-Have iOS Apps: Mailbox, AudioBox, Beastie Bay & More"?Cult of Mac?2/9
"MoneyControl Pro 4.0 - Keep track of the Family Budget via iPhone/iPad"?prMac?2/9
"Big iPad game 'Infinity Blade: Dungeons' delayed again/Epic Games has shut down the in-house studio put in charge of the upcoming iPad title that Apple showed off as a tech demo last year."?CNET News?2/8
"Mophie juices iPhone 5 batteries as new Belkin keyboard turns iPad mini into notebook"?AppleInsider?2/8
"MacWorld 2013: An iPad Powered Telepresence Robot"?Apple'n'Apps?2/8
"Evasi0n 1.2 is out, disables OTA updates and fixes timezone bug"?iDownload Blog?2/8
"If You've Jailbroken Your iPhone/iPad/iPad Mini Using Evasi0n, You Need This Fix"?Forbes?2/8
"MacWorld 2013: BigDay ? A Gift Registry For All Occasions"?Apple'n'Apps?2/8
"Moot's New iPad App, DrawQuest Challenges Users Of All Ages To Create And Share Drawings"?TechCrunch?2/8
"BBC to stream shows on iPlayer ahead of scheduled broadcasts"?Electronista?2/8
"Mailbox for iOS now available; grab a reservation soon"?ZDNet?2/8
"14 great gadgets for iPhones and iPads: These add-ons have you covered for everything from protection against water to more efficient charging" [Slideshow]?InfoWorld?2/8
"Skitch For iOS Update Adds New Text Editor, Better Performance"?Macgasm?2/8
"At long last, TI releases graphing calculator for the iPad: TI-Nspire for iPad folds an antiquated device into a modern one."?Ars Technica?2/8
"Bring your favourite playsets to life anywhere you go with the magic of AppVentures play cases!"?PRNewswire?2/8
"Mattel? Unveils the Future of Play with Hot New Properties and Must-Have Toys at the 2013 New York International Toy Fair" ["the Barbie? Digital Makeover Mirror uses facial tracking technology to transform an iPad? into a digital mirror ... The new Fisher-Price Create & Learn Case for iPad? protects an iPad while children draw and play."]?Business Wire?2/8
"CarStory? iPad App Uses Big Data to Uncover the Unique Story Behind Every Used Car"?Business Wire?2/8
"ShinesRooms' Review on Apple and Dell: Tech Stocks Offer Value to Investors"?Marketwire?2/8
"Don't Be An Angry Bird, Download Any Rovio iPad Title For Just $0.99 Each"?App Advice?2/8
Source: www.nytimes.com --- Monday, February 11, 2013 Three Nigerian journalists have been arrested and accused of inciting violence by saying on a radio show that polio immunizations were an anti-Islamic Western conspiracy. ...
A general view of Findus Beef Lasagne in a freezer of a local shop in Jarrow, England, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. U.K. authorities say beef lasagna products recalled from British supermarkets by frozen-food company Findus have tested positive or more than 60 percent horsemeat. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)
A general view of Findus Beef Lasagne in a freezer of a local shop in Jarrow, England, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. U.K. authorities say beef lasagna products recalled from British supermarkets by frozen-food company Findus have tested positive or more than 60 percent horsemeat. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Owen Paterson, left, speaks to the media outside Defra Headquarters in London, Saturday Feb. 9, 2013, after an emergency meeting with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and representatives of various leading retailers, as revelations about the widespread use of horseheat in supermarket beef products continues to hit consumer confidence. Concerns about the use of horsemeat burst into the spotlight earlier this year, after it emerged that some beef products contained horse DNA, and now the whole industry faces pressure to test their products and reveal the findings. (AP Photo / John Stillwell, PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES
A Findus Beef Lasagne photographed in a shop in Jarrow, England, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. Frozen-food company Findus recalled the beef lasagne meals earlier this week after French supplier Comigel raised concerns that the products didn't "conform to specification." The U.K. Food Standards Agency said the lasagnes were tested as part of an ongoing investigation into mislabeled meat. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)
British Meat Processors Association Director Stephen Rossides arrives for an emergency meeting with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and representatives of various leading retailers, at the government food and farming department, Defra, headquarters in London, as information is released revealing the widespread use of horseheat in supermarket beef products. Concerns about the use of horsemeat burst into the spotlight earlier this year, after it emerged that some beef products contained horse DNA, and now the whole industry faces public pressure to test their products and reveal the findings. (AP Photo / John Stillwell) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES
Findus Beef Lasagne photographed in a shop in Jarrow, England, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. Frozen-food company Findus recalled the beef lasagne meals earlier this week after French supplier Comigel raised concerns that the products didn't "conform to specification." The U.K. Food Standards Agency said the lasagnes were tested as part of an ongoing investigation into mislabeled meat. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) ? Two Romanian plants believed to be the source of horsemeat mislabeled as beef in supermarkets across Europe declared it properly and any fraud was committed somewhere else down the line, officials said Monday.
Romania is scrambling to contain the damage from the fast-growing horsemeat scandal ? where the cheaper meat was substituted for beef in everything from burgers to frozen lasagna. The finger-pointing is growing by the day, involving more countries and more companies.
France says that Romanian butchers and Dutch and Cypriot traders were part of a supply chain that resulted in horsemeat being labeled as beef before it was included in frozen dinners including lasagna, moussaka and the French equivalent of Shepherd's Pie. The affair started earlier this year with worries about horsemeat in burgers in Ireland and Britain.
Horsemeat is largely taboo in Britain and some other countries, though in France it is sold in specialty butcher shops and is prized by some connoisseurs. Authorities aren't worried about health effects, but it has unsettled consumers across Europe and raised questions about producers misleading the public.
A maze of trading between meat wholesalers has made it increasingly difficult to trace the origins of food. France's agricultural minister said Monday that regulators must find a way "out of the fog."
One of the slaughterhouses implicated, Carmolimp, said in a statement its meat was properly labeled as horsemeat, adding that it had not exported beef in 2012.
It called attempts to blame it for the scandal "shameful," suggesting that only an incompetent French meat processor would mistake the horsemeat for beef.
Romania has some 25 horsemeat slaughterhouses and exports horsemeat to Cyprus, France, Poland and the Netherlands, often through middlemen, officials said.
In deeply rural Romania, horses are sold from individual households to abattoirs, and each animal has four sets of documents before its meat is exported.
Romanian authorities stopped short of confirming that the two slaughterhouses were the source of the horsemeat. But they said they checked paperwork that shows they were not improperly mislabeling meat before it was shipped out of the country to middlemen.
Prime Minister Victor Ponta said Monday there were no direct contracts between the Romanian plants and French companies and that the meat would have been mislabeled somewhere else along the line.
"We can now ask that the guilty parties are sanctioned as fast and firmly as possible," he said. "I want to help catch and punish the guilty ones... .. We are victims of this fraud."
An initial investigation by French safety authorities determined that French company Poujol bought frozen meat from a Cypriot trader. That trader had received it from a Dutch food trader, and that Dutch company had received the meat from two Romanian slaughterhouses.
Swedish officials were meeting Monday with executives from the biggest supermarket chains to get an overview of how widespread the fraud is, while in Paris top French government officials and meat producers were gathering to get a handle on the crisis, which has snared a French food processing company, Comigel.
The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority also said Monday it was launching an investigation into the horsemeat scandal.
In Oslo, Findus said it was recalling lasagna from stores in Norway although it had found no evidence that they contained anything but the declared ingredients. A company statement said it that none of its products had been produced by Comigel after Aug. 1, 2012 ? the date after which batches of processed food contained horsemeat.
Re-tracing the path of the mislabeled meat will take time. Processed foods, unlike fresh, do not need to be labeled by their countries of origin in Europe. And typical frozen meals like the ones being pulled from supermarket shelves across Europe can have more than a dozen ingredients from all over.
French Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said the results of the French investigation into the horsemeat fraud would be released Wednesday.
No one has reported health risks from the mislabeled meat. But clearly some company in the food chain benefited from selling the much cheaper horsemeat as beef.
"There are people who are out there to defraud, who are looking to cheat," Le Foll told RTL radio.
Sorin Minea, who heads Romania's main food producers' association, claimed Monday in an interview that international gangs had perpetrated the fraud. "There is an international ring that does this... the documents (relating to the meat) are changed abroad," he said.
An expert would know the difference between horsemeat and beef and would be unlikely to mislabel it by accident.
"If the buyer is suspicious they have to check it at the source," he said.
Michel Barnier, a former French agricultural minister who now works at the European Union level, said it was not an issue of food safety but of justice.
"Consumers have the right to the truth, quality, and transparence. We have to do more in tracking," he told Europe 1 radio.
Findus Sweden plans to sue France's Comigel for breach of contract and fraud, Findus Nordic CEO Jari Latvanen said.
He said the company's deal with Comigel stipulates that the beef in the frozen lasagna should come from Germany, France or Austria, but that has not been the case.
______
Associated Press writer Lori Hinnant in Paris, Mike Corder in the Hague, Netherlands and Karl Ritter in Stockholm contributed to this report.
It's not every day you come across this sort of thing -- well, not unless your friends are the sort of folks who take it upon themselves to transform space travel as we know it. We popped into Liftport's workspace, during a recent visit to the Pacific Northwest, to check in on the progress of the Kickstarter-funded space company. Much of Liftport's innovation is occurring in a garage loaded with arcade cabinets and pinball machines in various states of disrepair and an army of cats with various levels of polydactylism. Above you'll find a prototypes of the company's various space elevator-climbing robots, which can be explored in more detail in the gallery below. We'll have more on our visit with Liftport soon.
JUBA/KHARTOUM (Reuters) - At least 24 people have been killed in fresh fighting in the volatile borderland between Sudan and South Sudan, the southern army and rebels said on Saturday.
South Sudan's army spokesman Philip Aguer said his troops killed seven fighters from a militia supported by Khartoum which had crossed the poorly-defined border.
The South's army captured a Sudanese army truck used by the fighters during the skirmish in Obed in Upper Nile state in the northeast of the country, Aguer said.
Sudan's army spokesman Al-Sawarmi Khalid could not be reached on his mobile phone.
In separate violence on Sudan's side of the border, rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North) accused a militia from South Sudan, supported by Khartoum, of having attacked a village and killed 17 people.
The militia also wounded 35 civilians during their attack in the area of Abujibeha in oil-producing South Kordofan state, SPLM-North spokesman Arnu Lodi said.
Sudan and South Sudan came close to war in April, their worst fighting since southern secession in 2011 under a peace deal which ended decades of civil war.
Both countries agreed in September to end hostilities by withdrawing their armies from the disputed border and to resume cross-border oil exports. But neither side has implemented the agreement and the two countries accuse each other of backing rebels in their respective territories.
The African Union is next week hosting another round of talks between the neighbors aiming to set up a buffer zone, a precondition for Sudan to restart oil exports.
South Sudan shut down its output of 350,000 barrels day a year ago in a row with Khartoum over pipeline fees. Oil is vital to both countries' beleaguered economies.
The AU twice brought together Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir in Ethiopia last month but there has been no sign of progress.
(Reporting by Hereward Holland in Juba and Khalid Abdelaziz in Khartoum; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Jason Webb)
KABUL (Reuters) - The U.S. Marine Corps general who will oversee the withdrawal of most foreign troops from Afghanistan and wind down America's longest war took command of NATO-led forces on Sunday at a change-of-command ceremony that emphasized Afghan sovereignty.
General Joseph Dunford took charge of the International Security Assistance Force from Marine Corps General John Allen, who ended a 19-month tour that was arguably one of the most difficult periods in the war, now in its 11th year.
"Today is not about change, it's about continuity. What has not changed is the will of this coalition ... What has not changed is the inevitability of our success," Dunford told a crowd of foreign and Afghan officials in an aging gymnasium at the barricaded ISAF headquarters.
Senior military officials, including Dunford and Allen, sat on a dais covered with an Afghan rug as a band played the U.S. and Afghan national anthems and a color guard presented the flags. Several hundred guests were seated in chairs on the floor of the old basketball court.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai was absent from the ceremony despite receiving an invitation from ISAF. A spokesman for Karzai declined to comment. General Martin Dempsey, the highest-ranking U.S. military officer, said later he thought the level of Afghan representation at the ceremony was appropriate.
Allen, who directed ISAF's transfer of most security across the country to the Afghan army and police, gave an emotional speech stressing the nation's sovereignty, an issue that has been a thorn in Karzai's relationship with his Western backers.
Located between Iran, Pakistan and Central Asia, Afghanistan has been subject to invasions since the ancient Greeks, through to the 19th-century "Great Game" - the scramble for power between Britain and Russia - and the last three decades of conflict.
Citing international support for a transformative decade in Afghanistan, Allen said: "I believe that in 10 years, Afghanistan will never again be a place between empires, caught in the grindstone of international politics."
AFGHANS TAKE THE LEAD
Dunford assumes control of ISAF at a time when the 350,000-strong Afghan military and police forces have taken over the lead role for security across most of the country, and are due to be fully in the lead everywhere within a few months. ISAF's primary role will be to assist, advise and train Afghan forces.
Allen and Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the challenge for Dunford through the end of 2014 would be to balance the withdrawal of international forces with the continuing need to assist and train Afghan troops, all while pressuring al Qaeda.
"Closing bases, moving equipment - if you're not careful, that can become the mission," Dempsey said. "So he's got to keep all those things in equilibrium."
Allen said the Afghan army and police were becoming ever more capable.
"Afghan forces defending Afghan people and enabling the government of this country to serve its citizens. This is victory. This is what winning looks like," Allen said.
Officials said that, while the insurgency remains a challenge, dealing with government corruption increasingly poses the biggest threat to Afghanistan's long-term viability.
"The strategic long-term enduring threat, it's not the insurgency. It is the degree of corruption and criminality that exists within the government," a senior ISAF official said on condition of anonymity. "If you can deal (with that) ... then you can start ... pulling the carpet out from underneath the insurgency."
Allen told reporters he thought Karzai had put in place the mechanisms to deal with corruption, but added: "We've reached a point now where rhetoric, while it was encouraging, isn't enough any more ...
"The rhetoric has to be accompanied by real and meaningful reform, reform that reduces the capacity of the criminal patronage networks to grip and weaken institutions of state."
Allen also said education was helping to turn the tide of public opinion in Afghanistan against Taliban insurgents, who banned girls from most schools. He earlier told Reuters that advancing women's rights was key to preventing the Islamist group regaining support.
The White House said last month it would nominate Allen as NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, after the Pentagon cleared him of professional misconduct over emails to a Florida socialite linked to a scandal that led his predecessor, David Petraeus, to resign as director of the CIA.
(Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
