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When Bibi Aisha’s nose and ears were cut off by her husband and her in-laws, no one ever expected much to be done about it, especially because it happened in a remote area under Taliban control.

Thanks to support from aid groups and the American Embassy in Kabul, and the charity of a hospital in southern California, Aisha was whisked off to the United States for reconstructive surgery, and everyone assumed it was case closed on the perpetrators.

Now it appears that, while Afghan law enforcement did not have a long enough arm to reach into the village that Aisha had fled, the police nonetheless did have long memories, and this week arrested one of the suspects.

“It would have taken 100 armored vehicles to go in there to that village,” said the district police chief, Mohammed Gul. Sooner or later, though, everyone in the area comes to the bazaar in Chora district, in south-central Oruzgan Province. When Aisha’s father-in-law Sulaiman showed up, police were waiting.

According to Mr. Gul’s account, the suspect spotted the police at the same time as they spotted him, and made a run for it. Officers chased him on foot and ran him down a mile and a quarter later, he said.

Aisha’s case came to prominence in August when Time Magazine used a picture of her on its cover, with the suggestion that this is what would happen if the West leaves Afghanistan. A child bride, Aisha had fled her arranged marriage to a Taliban fighter, but was captured and returned to the village, where her husband, father-in-law and brother-in-law carried out the mutilation, after approval by the local Taliban mullah. Left for dead, she said, she then fled to the safety of a women’s shelter in Kabul run by Women for Afghan Women, which publicized her plight a year later.

Mr. Gul said Mr. Sulaiman, who like many Afghans has only one name, confessed to participating in the disfigurement.

He credited an unusual campaign from higher police officials pressing his department into trying to apprehend the perpetrators. “I had 15 letters and warrants come down for them,” he said.

“This was a case of persistence and diligence by our police,” said Zemarai Bashary, the spokesman for the Ministry of Interior. “The M.O.I. was very involved in pushing this case after we received a complaint from the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.”

The provincial police chief in Oruzgan was scathing in denouncing the crime and its perpetrators. “Sulaiman pointed a gun at her head while the other men, his sons, sliced off her nose,” said Brig. Gen. Juma Gul Himat. “Sulaiman then took her amputated nose and proudly showed it off around the village.”

It is rare for the police in Afghanistan to intervene when local villagers impose punishments for social crimes, even severe ones such as flogging and stoning, which are allowed under Shariah law. There is no Shariah law provision, however, for cutting off nose and ears of a runaway child bride.

“This is against Afghan-ism, against Afghan and Shariah laws, against every principle in the world, against humanity, so that’s why we wanted to bring him to justice,” said General Himat. He said police knew Mr. Sulaiman well as an associate of what he called terrorists, but that the police had not hunted him down for that.

“He made a big mistake,” the general said. “He disfigured a creature of God and he was proud of what he had done.”

Aisha’s father, Haji Muhammed Zai, reached by telephone, confirmed that he had agreed to the betrothal of Aisha and her younger sister to Mr. Sulaiman’s family members, in payment of what is called “baad,” a customary obligation owed by his own family. It is a common practice in rural areas. Both were infants when they were engaged.

He insisted, however, that he has not as yet turned over the younger daughter, who is now 12, to consummate the marriage contract.

“I will never forgive them for what they have committed against my daughter,” Mr. Zai said. “I am serious to punish them so I want her back in the country to testify.”

Aisha, who is now 20, is living in Brooklyn while she gets treatment for emotional problems from her ordeal. Doctors at the Grossman Burn Foundation in California said they feel that is necessary before she can have reconstructive surgery there, according to Manizha Naderi, the head of Women for Afghan Women, which has offices in Brooklyn and Kabul. So far, Aisha has been given a prosthetic nose as a temporary measure.

“She’s not coming back to Afghanistan to testify,” Ms. Naderi said. “We won’t put Aisha in danger like this. Nobody will guarantee her security in Afghanistan if she comes back.”

In addition, she added, Aisha’s father was himself responsible for returning her to her in-laws after she ran away. “He should have known that she would either be killed or injured when she was given back.”

Ms. Naderi expressed satisfaction that some arrest had been made, but added, “It’s definitely not the end. The end would be when her husband and brother-in-law are also arrested.”

“This arrest gives hope to all Afghan women that their perpetrators will be brought to justice, that sooner or later criminals will be punished,” she said.

“I regret what I did now, sending her back,” Mr. Zai, Aisha’s father said. “I only wanted to try to have good relations with their family despite their bad behavior, so I sent her back to them.”

Like his daughter, Mr. Zai, too, is a refugee now, in Tirin Kot, the capital of Oruzgan Province. After the Sulaiman arrest, which took place two weeks ago, “I left our village because I was afraid of retaliation,” he said. “We are very tired, we have left everything behind, land, orchards and home.”

Diplomats from delegations at the table with Iran said Tehran made no commitments to talking about U.N. Security Council demands that Tehran freeze uranium enrichment — which has both civilian and military uses.

"We didn't get anywhere on substance," said one of the officials. "It was an exchange of views."

A senior U.S. administration official, in a similarly sober assessment, said: "Our expectations for these talks were low, and they were never exceeded."

Iran's chief negotiator, Saed Jalili, also sought to dampen expectations.

"I am telling you clearly and openly that halting uranium enrichment will not be discussed at the Istanbul meeting," he told reporters.
DEFECTOR: Iran hosted North Korean technicians IRAN: Country boasts full range of nuke ability as talks open

But the diplomats said Jalili did not object when the six powers, the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, brought up concern over enrichment during two days of talks that ended at midday Tuesday. The fact that the Iranians did not dismiss such international worries led to the decision to agree to a second round, said the three officials, who asked for anonymity because the information was confidential.

"As expected the talks were not a breakthrough but a beginning was achieved," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in Berlin.

The senior U.S. administration official said "an increasing amount of international isolation" might be contributing to possible Iranian willingness to engage. He also asked not to be named in exchange for talking about the closed meeting.

Ahmadinejad set the bar high for the success of the Istanbul talks, saying it hinged on whether the U.N. Security Council agreed to lift five resolutions and four sets of sanctions against his country, imposed over its refusal to freeze enrichment. That is something the five permanent Security Council members are unlikely to even consider, suggesting his comments were meant for domestic consumption.

"If you come to talks with sincerity, loyalty to the law, friendship and respect ... and cancel resolutions, sanctions and some restrictions that you imposed, it will definitely be helpful," state TV's website quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

"But if you again come with deception and animosity, not respecting the rights of the Iranian nation ... the response of the Iranian nation will be the same as you've received until today. This response will be very regretful."

He also scoffed at the suggestion that United States with its huge nuclear arsenal and its allies were afraid that Iran could develop nuclear arms, saying "this claim is a lie and deception," in comments quoted by state TV.

But comments by a former Iranian diplomat who defected to the West added to concerns.

Mohammad Reza Heydari, who resigned in January from his post as Iranian consul in Norway said that during his contacts with Iran's revolutionary guards "it was clearly said that Iran was concentrating on two objectives ... the first was to build the range of surface-to-surface missiles, the second was to get a nuclear weapon with North Korea's help."

The comments at a Paris think tank conference come amid rising international concerns that North Korea, which has already staged atomic tests, is cooperating with Iran on its nuclear program.

Heydari said that from 2002 to 2007, when he headed the Iranian Foreign Ministry's office for airports, he saw many technicians from North Korea travel to Iran.

"I witnessed repeated round-trips of North Korean specialists and technicians — given that I was right there at the border — who came to collaborate on the Iranian nuclear program," he said through a translator.

Based on information from "friends and contacts" still in the know about the visits by North Korean technicians, Heydari said he is "100 percent certain" they are continuing.

A U.S. intelligence assessment — published among the flood of classified State Department memos obtained by WikiLeaks — concluded that Iran received advanced North Korean missiles capable of targeting Western European capitals and giving Iran's arsenal a significantly farther reach than previously disclosed.

In Geneva, Jalili denied reports of cooperation between Iran and North Korea, telling reporters they were "totally fabricated.".

In separate comments to journalists, the European's Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said agreement on a new meeting was reached after "substantive talks."

"We and Iran agree to a continuation of these talks in late January in Istanbul," said Ashton, speaking on behalf of six.

Ashton had previously rejected Tehran's preference for a meeting in Istanbul, where Iran would have Turkish allies on the sidelines, and agreement on that venue appeared to be a concession to the Islamic Republic.

She declined to go into details saying only: "We recognize Iran's rights but insist it fulfills its obligations." While the six powers accept Iran's right to develop nuclear power they insist that Tehran meet U.N. Security Council demands.

At the Istanbul meeting "we plan to discuss practical ideas and ways of cooperating toward the resolution of our full concerns about the nuclear issue," Ashton told reporters shortly after the second day of talks ended around noon.

Jalili confirmed the timing and venue of the planned talks, while serving notice that his country would not deviate from its insistence that it has a right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

"We reject the idea of talks under pressure," he told reporters.

While avoiding the mention of international concerns over Iran's nuclear program he said his country was ready to "sit down and talk about common concerns over important international issues, security concerns, economic concerns and so forth."

International worries are great because Tehran developed its enrichment program clandestinely and because it refuses to cooperate with an IAEA probe meant to follow up on suspicions that it experimented with components of a nuclear weapons program — something Iran denies.

Officials from the six powers said Jalili declined to address their worries on enrichment and related issues, focusing instead on generalities and perceived mistakes made by the West in its treatment of Iran over the nuclear issue.

Still, "the vast majority of the talks was about the nuclear issue," said one of the officials.

"Jalili gave sense he understands international concerns," he said. "It's clear he's heard our concerns."

The chief minister of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan region escaped an assassination attempt early Tuesday in the provincial capital of Quetta, when an explosion set off by a suicide bomber rocked his convoy, according to Abid Notkani, the Quetta police chief. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Mohammad Aslam Khan Raisani, a member of the governing Pakistan Peoples Party, was unhurt but his chief security officer and several policemen were wounded. Two vehicles in the chief minister’s convoy were damaged in the blast, which left charred human body parts strewn across the usually busy Sariab Road.

Baluchistan Province borders Iran and Afghanistan and makes up one third of Pakistan’s territory. Members of the Baluchi population say they feel politically and economically marginalized and have long demanded greater autonomy and a bigger share in their province’s natural wealth.

For the last several years, the Pakistani Army has been trying to quell an armed rebellion by Baluchi separatists and nationalists. At the same time, the Taliban have managed to maintain their presence in areas of the province that border Afghanistan.

South Korea's president promised Tuesday to transform five islands that lie along the tense maritime border with North Korea into "military fortresses" impervious to the kind of deadly attack the rival neighbor launched last month.

As the government in Seoul struggles to counter the widespread impression its response was too weak and too slow, the new defense minister also ordered his top commanders to retaliate with force if attacked.

President Lee Myung-bak has demanded upgraded rules of engagement to allow the military to respond more forcefully to provocations since the Nov. 23 shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, a tiny enclave of military bases and fishing communities along the Koreas' disputed western sea border. He has also reinforced troops stationed on the island.

The attack - the first since the 1950-53 Korean War to target a civilian area - killed two South Korean marines and two construction workers, and reduced many homes and shops to charred rubble.

The two Koreas remain in a technical state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. North Korea disputes the maritime border drawn by U.N. forces in 1953, and considers the waters around the front-line islands its territory.

North Korea said it launched its attack after Seoul refused to stop live-fire drills in the disputed waters. Similar exercises were held around the Korean peninsula Tuesday, though not in the disputed waters.

Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin will meet Wednesday with U.S. officials led by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Meanwhile, the top diplomats from the U.S., Japan and South Korea met in Washington to discuss North Korea. They jointly urged Pyongyang to stop the "belligerent" behavior.

"All agree that North Korea's provocative and belligerent behavior jeopardizes peace and stability in Asia," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday.

They said they would not resume negotiations aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program until the regime's behavior changes. Pyongyang recently revealed a uranium enrichment facility - which could give it a second way to make atomic bombs. Despite that defiance, North Korea has indicated its readiness to resume the negotiations on providing the regime with much-needed aid and other concessions in exchange for disarmament.

Regional powers have been pressing China, North Korea's main ally and benefactor, to use its influence to rein in North Korea.

"I think broadly the region, and certainly the United States, would like to see China be more influential in Pyongyang to attempt to stop the type of provocations that we've seen and ultimately assist the international community in denuclearizing North Korea," Adm. Bob Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in Canberra, Australia, on Tuesday.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu reiterated China's calls that the way forward is to resume the nuclear negotiations - called the six party talks.

"We always believe that dialogue and negotiation are the only correct way to address the Korean nuclear issue and other issues on the peninsula and realizing lasting peace on the peninsula," Jiang said Tuesday. "If the parties start talks, they will certainly find a way to resolve the issue."

Jiang added that accusations that China was enabling North Korean nuclear ambitions are "irresponsible."

Yeonpyeong Island, which went up in flames and was left a scene of destruction, is a ghost town two weeks after the attack, with most of the 1,300 civilian residents seeking refuge on the mainland and many refusing to return.

Lee said in comments posted to the presidential website that the government plans to create jobs to allow local residents to keep living on Yeonpyeong and the four other front-line islands.

Seoul has announced 30 billion won ($27 million) to help rebuild Yeonpyeong, while the city of Incheon, which has jurisdiction over the island, has requested help to modernize underground shelters and buy equipment for the fisherman who used to ply their trade on the island.

It is rare in the immigration debate for big business to come together with civil rights groups to challenge the constitutionality of legislation.

But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has joined groups such as the National Immigration Law Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund in filing suit against the state of Arizona for a law that severely sanctions employers for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. On Wednesday the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case.

The groups argue that the Legal Arizona Worker's Act, and similar legislation in other states, unconstitutionally conflict with existing federal law. The legislation is part of an emerging trend, as state lawmakers complain the federal government is not doing enough in its traditional role of immigration regulation.

The United State Justice Department has filed a brief in support of the groups, arguing that the state laws are generating confusion among employers and employees.

"Those provisions," writes Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, "disrupt a careful balance that Congress struck nearly 25 years ago between two interests of the highest importance: ensuring that employers do not undermine enforcement of immigration laws by hiring unauthorized workers, while also ensuring that employers do not discriminate against racial and ethnic minorities legally in the country."

In some cases the state law imposes harsher sanctions on employers than under federal law.

Robin Conrad of the Chamber of Commerce says, "American businesses are overwhelmed by the cacophony of complex and often conflicting state and local immigration regulations."

Conrad says that States are frustrated with the "broken immigration system" but that "the confusing patchwork of immigration regulations doesn't solve our immigration problems, and instead makes it more difficult for employers to create jobs and grow the economy."

The law also mandates that employers check the immigration status of potential employees through a federal database called the E-Verify program. Under federal law, however, the use of E-Verify is voluntary.

Business, Civil Rights Groups Challenge Immigration Law in Supreme Court

"Congress made E-Verify voluntary for good reason" writes Carter G. Phillips, a lawyer for the coalition of groups. " It historically has been error-prone, and requires participating employers to weigh possible benefits against serious burdens."

The law was signed in 2007 by Arizona's then-governor, Janet Napolitano. She is now the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which overseas federal immigration.

In court briefs lawyers for Arizona support the law, saying it is an attempt "to ensure that workers who are hired by Arizona employers are legally authorized to work in this country."

The state argues that federal law should not take precedence. " Although the federal government is responsible for regulating immigration, there remains room for State legislation that touches on immigration issues."

The case is being watched carefully as a possible precursor to a challenge to another controversial Arizona law -- the one requiring police to ask for papers from anyone they think might be in the country illegally.

Justice Elena Kagan will not participate in Wednesday's case, having dealt with the issue in her previous role as Solicitor General of the United States.