• The sooner the US exits Afghanistan the better | Matthew Hoh and Matthew Southworth

  A new female recruit of the Afghanistan police force during a training session south of Herat, western Afghanistan. Photograph: Raheb ...

• Father of Afghan cricket captain kidnapped by unknown gunmen

  Sydney, May 23 : The father of the captain of the Afghanistan cricket team has been abducted by unknown gunmen from his car from the outskirts of the city of Jalalabad in the eastern province of Nangarhar, according to ...

• Hamid Karzai wraps up India visit

  New Delhi, May 23 : The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai paid a two-day working visit to India from May ...

• Afghan Coalition Forces Arrest Insurgents in Baghlan Province

  From an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Release KABUL, Afghanistan, May 23, 2013 – A combined Afghan and coalition security force in Baghlan province's Baghlan-e Jadid district arrested six insurgents today during a search for a Taliban facilitator, military officials reported. The facilitator controls a group responsible for attacks on Afghan and coalition ...

• Kazakhstan Ratifies Afghan Transit Deal with UK

  ASTANA, May 23 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan’s parliament ratified an agreement with Britain on Thursday on transit of military equipment and personnel across its territory from Afghanistan, where British troops are serving in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). British aircraft will fly through Kazakhstan’s airspace without making a stopover on its territory, ...

• Crossing Afghanistan I saw how the war brought jobs – and corruption

  My journey of a thousand miles began with a single bribe. I was riding in a Pakistani truck hauling a shipping container from the port city of Karachi to the Afghan capital of Kabul, along one of the two main routes used to supply U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. I was accompanied by the truck driver and his brother, and a friend who served as a translator. We were still on the outskirts of ...

• Mass. soldier killed in Afghanistan returns home

  PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The body of a soldier from Massachusetts killed in Afghanistan last week has been returned to Berkshire County.The body of U.S. Army Spc. Mitchell Daehling was brought to a Pittsfield funeral home on Wednesday after landing at Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield.Calling hours for the 24-year-old Daehling are scheduled for Thursday afternoon at St. Agnes Church in ...

• In Pakistan the Afghan war brings jobs - and criminality on an epic scale

  Azim Khan stands atop his truck in the main yard of Shireen Jinnah Colony, where hundreds of tankers load up with fuel to supply to U.S.and NATO military presence in Afghanistan. When the Pakistani government closed down the supply routes in response to an errant U.S.airstrike, Mr. Khan spent seven months sleeping in his truck. (Matthieu ...

• India mulls Karzai wish list for military hardware

  Indian government a 'wish list' for military equipment. The list, said sources, comes after considerable discussions with Afghanistan on what exactly they would want. New Delhi has committed to provide training, equipment and capacity building for Afghan armed forces as part of the strategic partnership pact signed in 2011. However, India appears more hesitant this time, largely ...

• Turncoats How the Taliban Undermines and Infiltrates the Afghan Local Police

  ZARI DISTRICT, Afghanistan — The sound of gunfire was the first sign that the Afghan cop’s loyalty was suspect. It was February in Hadji Musa, a village in ...

• Father of Afghanistan cricket captain abducted near his home

  KABUL - Gunmen kidnapped the father of Afghanistan's national cricket team captain near his home in an eastern city, officials said Thursday. There has been no ransom demand since Mohammad Nabi's 60-year-old father Khobi Khan was abducted from his car in the city of Jalalabad, cricket board president Shazada Masoud said. Police are searching for Khan, but there have been no leads or ...

• Afghan cricketers father kidnapped

  Nabi 's 60-year-old father, Khobi Khan, was abducted near his home in the city of Jalalabad.Cricket board president Shazada Masoud said that police are assisting but there have been no leads or any contact since Mr Khan was taken from his car on Tuesday.He said Nabi told him his family has no personal disputes and he is shocked at the abduction. Kidnapping is fairly common ...

• Obama to limit drone strikes restart Guantanamo closure

  Obama will say Thursday. The president will also announce new limits to unmanned combat drone strikes, the officials said of the program that has been central to White House efforts to combat terrorism. Obama's 2 p.m. speech at the Defense Department's National Defense University in Washington will lay out how he intends to bring his counter-terrorism policies in line with the legal ...

• Azerbaijan ready to increase peacekeepers in Afghanistan – official

  A total of 94 Azerbaijani peacekeepers serve in Afghanistan at the moment. The statement came from Vice Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Ziyafat Asgarov in an interview with ...

• Pak Taliban other militant outfits behind MQM leaders killing Malik

  Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said the murder of Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Raza Haider in Karachi was part of a plan hatched by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other banned outfits to destabilise the country. Haider was gunned down in the financial capital along with his security guard by unidentified gunmen inside Jamia Masjid on Monday. Malik said outlawed ...

• Violence crisis Cabinet meeting after deadly London attack

  Anti-Muslim rioters fought police and 10 Downing St. called crisis Cabinet meetings after men raging about Islam hacked a soldier to death on a London street. About 250 supporters of the English Defense League street protest movement, all wearing black ski masks and some in paramilitary dress, threw rocks and bottles at police in London's southeast Woolwich district. The rioting occurred ...

• It is too early to comment on Talibans peace talk offer says US

  The US has said it is too early to comment on Pakistani Taliban's peace talks offer to Prime Minister-designate Nawaz Sharif."It would be premature for us to comment on any potential negotiations," a State Department spokesperson told PTI when asked about peace talks offered by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan which is at war with the country's government."The United ...

• Pakistan summons Afghan envoy over border post firing

  Pakistan on Thursday summoned Afghan Charge d'Affaires and lodged protest over unprovoked firing on a border check post, the Foreign Ministry said. The Foreign Ministry said that two soldiers were injured in firing by Afghan troops late Wednesday. "The Afghan Charge d'Affaires was summoned to the Foreign Office today for conveying protest of the Government of Pakistan on an ...

• Afghan protest over womens rights

  Taliban regime known for its harsh treatment of women.The protest came days after conservative politicians' vehement opposition blocked an attempt to cement the decree's provisions in law.Most of international force that ousted the Taliban is now preparing to withdraw by the end of next year and activists fear an erosion of women's rights will follow if hardliners pressure the ...

• Afghan students protest women’s rights

  Afghan university students chant slogans as they demonstrate against the Elimination of Violence against Women law, in Kabul on May 22, 2013. The Afghan parliament on May 18 cut short a debate on a bill to protect women from violence after complaints from some traditionalist MPs that it was against Islamic teaching. The Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW) law, which was passed by a ...

• Afghan’s ties with India not at the cost of Pak

  Nawaz Sharif has talked up his desire for better ties with India. "We have a wishlist that we have presented to India. Now it is upto them to decide," Karzai said during an interaction with a group of journalists on Wednesday, a day after he held talks with Prime ...

• Afghan interpreters risk being failed by bureaucracy

  Downing Street has denied reports that its scheme is open only to interpreters who lose their jobs as troops are withdrawn. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty ...

• Afghanistan Inside The Head Of The Giant Buddha

  A Fort of Nine Towers . He describes for anchor Marco Werman his family’s efforts to flee the war in the early 1990s, and how they resorted to living in a cave behind the giant Buddha statues in the historic district of ...

• Lifeline for Afghan interpreters

  An Afghan man sits next to a British Army soldier of Highlanders, 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, at a joint check point in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. REUTERS/Shamil ...

• Afghan cricket captains dad abducted

  UNKNOWN gunmen have dragged the father of Afghanistan's cricket captain from his car on the outskirts of Jalalabad city and have taken him hostage, officials ...

• UK Denmark to give Afghan interpreters visas

  The United Kingdom and Denmark will give hundreds of Afghan interpreters who worked for British and Danish troops in Afghanistan visas to live in the UK and ...

• Britain offers visas to its Afghan interpreters

  LONDON (Reuters) - Around 600 interpreters who serve alongside British soldiers in Afghanistan are to be offered visas to live in the UK, in a softening of the government's previous policy of encouraging them to stay in the country after British troops ...

• Afghanistan Suicide bomber kills anti-Taliban village elder 3 others in busy market

  KABUL - A suicide bomber on foot killed an anti-Taliban village elder and at least three other people in a busy marketplace Wednesday in central Afghanistan, the latest in a wave of assassinations and bombings. Habibullah Khan was killed along with two bodyguards and a civilian bystander in the afternoon attack in Ghazni province's Moqur district, police said. At least 14 civilians were ...

• Why Afghanistan is nervous about the US troop withdrawal

  A US soldier secures the area where a suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday. Next year will mark the end of NATO's combat mission in Afghanistan. By December 2014 the US and other foreign troops still here will be ...

• Afghan suicide blast kills 7 officials

  A TEENAGE suicide bomber killed seven people in central Afghanistan when he targeted local fighters who battle against Taliban insurgents, officials say. The attacker detonated himself in a market place in Ghazni province, two days after another bomber struck outside government buildings in the north of Afghanistan, killing 14 people, including a provincial politician. "At around 5pm, an ...

• Imran Khans PTI seeks pro-Taliban clerics help to initiate peace talks with outfit

  Peshawar, May 22 : The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has sought the help of an elderly pro-Taliban cleric to initiate peace talks with the militants, party officials have ...

• Pakistan influence on Taliban important for peace process Karzai

  New Delhi, May 22 : Asserting that Pakistan is an important element in maintaining peace in Afghanistan, visiting President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday it would be difficult to fight terrorism without Islamabad's cooperation because it has influence over ...

• 101st brigades among last in eastern Afghanistan

  FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan - When the 4th Brigade Combat Team from the 101st Airborne Division took control over three key provinces in southeastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, they were likely the last American combat brigade in the area now that the U.S. is handing over responsibility for security to the Afghans.On Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost Province, leaders of the ...

• India will do all in its power to promote Afghan stability

  India said on Wednesday it will do all within its means to promote stability inAfghanistan after visiting President Hamid Karzai said he had given a military "wishlist" to the Indian ...

• Afghan interpreters win right to new life in Britain

  Afghanistan Up to 600 Afghan interpreters who served with British forces in Afghanistan will be offered the chance of a new life in Britain after a government U-turn.Prime minister David Cameron had initially decided to discourage the interpreters from settling in Britain for fear of the message it would send out about the stability of Afghanistan as foreign forces pull out.Many of the Afghans ...

• Body of tortured Afghan unearthed near former US Special Forces base - report

  USA Afghan officials have reportedly found the footless body of a local man who went missing a half-year ago. The corpse was unearthed near the former A-Team US Special Forces base - where detainees were tortured and killed, locals claim. Authorities alleged that the grisly discovery is directly connected to Zakaria Kandahari, a notorious wartime collaborator who Afghan officials believe has ...

• Deaths injuries reported from explosions reported across Afghanistan

  Explosions in southern and western Afghanistan killed four people and wounded five others, local authorities said Wednesday. In Helmand province, officials said a civilian died and three others were injured from an explosion near a private hospital in Nad-e-Ali district Wednesday, Khaama Press reported. Three Afghan civilians were killed and two others were injured when a roadside bomb ...

• Afghan President Asks India for Military Aid

  Afghan President Hamid Karzai has given a "wish list" of military equipment to India in hopes of securing more aid before international troops leave his country next ...

• Moving mountains The Afghan-American best-selling author Khaled Hosseini on his new novel

  His amazing run continued on Tuesday night as he appeared before an overflowing crowd at a bookshop in New York City. With some 300 people seated before him, and dozens more watching on a video screen a floor below, Hosseini spoke for about 40 minutes about his new ...

• By branding the Taliban ‘terrorists’ Canada gave up on Afghan peace

  addition of the Afghan Taliban to Canada's list of terrorist entities came as a surprise. More than a surprise, it was disheartening. After more than a decade of engagement in Afghanistan, the Harper government has indicated it is no longer interested in finding a path to ...

• Combined Force Arrests Taliban Leader in Helmand Province

  From an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Release KABUL, Afghanistan, May 22, 2013 – A combined Afghan and coalition security force arrested a Taliban leader and four other insurgents in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Afghanistan's Helmand province today, military officials reported. The leader plans, directs and executes attacks against Afghan and coalition ...

• Britain to finalize UK relocation plans for Afghan interpreters who worked on front line

  LONDON - Britain is proposing to give around 600 Afghan interpreters who worked alongside its troops the right to settle in the U.K. in recognition of the risks to their personal safety. The plans, released Wednesday, will allow interpreters who have worked on the front lines in Afghanistan for more than a year to relocate to Britain on a five-year visa. Those who do not meet the requirement ...

• Hard-line students in Afghanistan protest womens rights decree as un-Islamic demand repeal

  KABUL - Hard-line Islamist students protested Wednesday in the Afghan capital demanding the repeal of a presidential decree for women's rights that they say is un-Islamic. It was the latest sign of a backlash against the legal protections passed in the 12 years since the toppling of the Taliban regime known for its harsh treatment of women. The protest came days after conservative ...

• ‘Exhausted’ Karzai wants to retire

  New Delhi - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday that he was ';exhausted'; and wanted to retire from politics at the end of his current ...

• Afghanistan’s Karzai Says ‘No Circumstances’ Allow Him to Seek Another Term

  NEW DELHI -- Seeking to dispel widespread rumors that he would find a way to cling to power beyond the end of his second term next year, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan said Wednesday that there was "no circumstance that will allow me to stay as ...

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