Afghanistan

President reshuffles Defense Ministry

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has approved a long-awaited reshuffle in the Defense Ministry, viewed as a crucial step toward disarming powerful warlords and building a viable national army, Afghan officials said Saturday.

Karzai sacked the army chief of staff, Gen. Mohammed Asef Delawar, and appointed Gen. Bismillah Khan as his successor, presidential spokesman Jawid Luddin said.

To make the ministry more ethnically diverse, Karzai also named Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak, a Pashtun, to be first deputy.

Defense reforms have stalled several times, mainly because of resistance from Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim — a powerful ethnic Tajik who replaced slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massood as the commander of anti-Taliban forces.

Indonesia

Jakarta bomb victim marries in hospital

A victim in last month’s bombing of Jakarta’s J.W. Marriott hotel married his fiancee on Saturday in a hospital where he is being treated for burns from the attack.

Febby Firmansyah, a 26-year-old marketing officer, married Delli Ratna Sari in the burns unit of Jakarta’s Pertamina Hospital.