VOA News February 20, 2012
U.S. Senator John McCain said he hopes a strategic partnership agreement with Afghanistan can be finalized before a NATO meeting in May, but that the United States will not resolve sensitive issues in a way that might put American service members at risk.

New Kerala
Islamabad, Feb 20 : Af ghan Prsident Hamid Karzai feels Pakistan wants to set up a puppet government after the US leaves Afghanistan, a senior Pakistani official has said.

VOA News February 20, 2012
Afghan police say a suicide bomber has attacked a police station in the southern city of Kandahar, killing at least one police officer.

KABUL, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- A total of 14 Afghan civilians were killed in Afghanistan in the past week, the country's Interior Ministry said on Monday.

KABUL, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- A total of 481 insurgents had been killed during operations launched by Afghan Border Police (ABP) in provinces bordering neighboring countries over the past 11 months, the spokesman for Interior Ministry said on Monday.

February 20, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A prominen t female lawmaker has repeated her intention to run for Afghanistan's presidency when current President Hamid Karzai's term runs out in two years' time, suggesting she sees signs that gender bias is easing among some Afghans.

February 20, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty By Frud Bezhan
Afghanistan's recent history is comparable to a war epic -- a story encompassing four decades of foreign invasions, civil war, and political turmoil.

By RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press February 20, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - More than 40 people, most of them children, have frozen to death in what has been Afghanistan's coldest winter in years, an Afghan health official said Monday.

AFP 20/02/2012
HERAT - Abdullah was left catatonic and almost mute by the electric shocks meted out to him by Iranian police before they bussed him to the border and sent him back to Afghanistan.

Wall Street Journal FEBRUARY 15, 2012
Here are excerpts from the Wall Street Journal interview with Afghan President Hamid Karzai conducted by Yaroslav Trofimov and Matt Murray in Kabul, Feb. 15, 2012.

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai vowed to enhance bilateral interaction by pursuing an institutional approach to deal with the common challenges during their meeting held here on Thursday

VOA News February 16, 2012
Pakistan's new ambassador to the United States, Sherry Rehman, says Islamabad will support Afghan-led peace initiatives but will not align itself with any particular side in the conflict.

Karzai Says Secret Three-Way Negotiations Over Peace Settlement Have Begun
Wall Street Journal By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV And MATT MURRAY FEBRUARY 16, 2012
KABUL - The U.S. and Afghan gover nments have begun secret three-way talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told The Wall Street Journal, disclosing an important breakthrough in efforts to end the 10-year war.

February 16, 2012 | FoxNews.com
The U.S. government has launched into three-way peace talks with the Afghan government and Taliban, a senior military official in Afghanistan told Fox News.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty February 12, 2012 By RFE/RL's Tajik Service
A transport helicopter has crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing all four people onboard.

ABC News February 12, 2012
The Afghan government has downplayed a rogue soldier's claims that more Afghan army trainees are ready to launch deadly attacks against coalition soldiers.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Unidentified gunmen shot dead a judge and injured four of his family members Saturday night in an attack in the country's eastern province of Nangarhar, a district chief said on Sunday.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Security forces have arrested five Taliban insurgents including a would-be suicide bomber child who was set free in Kabul months ago, the department of National Directorate for Security (NDS) said in Kandahar on Sunday.

Maybe not, but as Afghanistan played its first major international cricket match today against rival Pakistan, some hoped the goodwill between the players on the field would translate into better relations off it.
Christian Science Monitor By Issam Ahmed, Correspondent February 10, 2012

Associated Press By RAHIM FAIEZ Saturday, February 11, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Besides going after a medal in the boxing ring at the London Olympics, Sadaf Rahimi will be taking a few punches in the fight for equal rights for Afghan women.

The Age By Kevin Sieff February 11, 2012
KABUL - In a country where the recent past has unfolded like a war epic, officials think they have found a way to teach Afghan history without widening the fractures between long-quarrelling ethnic and political groups: leave out the past four decades.

New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN and JAWAD SUKHANYAR February 10, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan government officials who traveled to the snowbound village where seven children and a young adult reportedly were killed in a NATO airstrike this week said that the bombing was based on incorrect information.

TOLOnews.com Friday, 10 February 2012
The talks between the US and Taliban in Qatar have ended without reaching any results, a Pakistani Tv channel has reported

PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- More than a dozen anti-government militants surrendered in Baghlan province, 160 km north of Kabul on Saturday, a local official said.

Public asked to donate to renovate historic buildings badly damaged during decades of conflict in Afghanistan
Guardian.co.uk By Jon Boone Friday 10 February 2012
Kabul - Few buildings in Kabul are as iconic, or tragic, as Darulaman Palace in the south-west of the Afghan capital

TOLOnews.com Tuesday, 07 February 2012
A Taliban leader was captured in a joint operation conducted by Afghan and Coalition security troops in southern Helmand province on Tuesday, Isaf said.

Toronto Star By Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa Bureau chief Mon Feb 06 2012
OTTAWA - More than 100 Afghan citizens who put their lives on the line to help Canada’s Afghanistan mission are getting a second chance to resettle here.

TOLOnews.com Monday, 06 February 2012
The Hezb-e-Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekymatyar is pessimistic about peace negotiations in Qatar, Hekmatyar's delegation in Kabul said.

February 7, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A new International Labor Organization (ILO) assessment says that half of the workforce in Afghan brick kilns are children under the age of 14.

New York Times By ELISABETH BUMILLER February 2, 2012
BRUSSELS - Reacting to consternation among NATO allies, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta sought to clarify on Thursday night that American troops would not step back entirely from combat in Afghanistan next year but would allow Afghan security forces a “lead” role.

by Abdul Haleem, Yangtze Yan
KABUL, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- "I am a mother of three and have nothing to keep my hut warm," a destitute woman appealed to passersby for alms in downtown Kabul.

Why cutting and running in Afghanistan is good politics for Obama.
Foreign Policy BY MICHAEL A. COHEN FEBRUARY 2, 2012
Barack Obama is nothing if not a trailblazing politician -- after all, when you're the first African-American elected to the nation's highest office, breaking the mold is sort of part of your political DNA. However, with the announcement by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on Tuesday, Feb. 1, that the Obama administration

Troops' accelerated departure after the killings of four French soldiers marks a breaking of Western ranks. It could also serve as a message to insurgents that such attacks are an effective way to push U.S. allies out of the fight.
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times January 29, 2012
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan
After France, the deluge?
The announcement by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that his troops would sharply accelerate their departure from Afghanistan cast a harsh light on potential cracks in the U.S.-led military coalition in the country.

TOLOnews.com By Shahla Murtazawey Saturday, 28 January 2012
No Taliban office has officially been opened in Qatar, Afghan High Peace Council officials said on Saturday.

Prime minister's comments follow France's announcement that it will withdraw its soldiers a year ahead of schedule
Guardian.co.uk By Conal Urquhart and agencies Saturday 28 January 2012
British troops will only be withdrawn from Afghanistan when Afghan security forces are ready to take over their role, David Cameron said on Saturday

AP By RAHIM FAIEZ Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan lawmaker has sharply criticized France’s plans to hand over security in her troubled province to Afghan troops within a few months, saying that her country’s forces are unprepared to handle the job and more violence would result.

PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Fifty more militants surrender to the government in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan, a provincial police source said Sunday.

January 29, 2012 16:07 IST Rediff.com
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar will visit Kabul on February 1 to boost Pakistan-Afghanistan ties and efforts to engage the Taliban that were affected by the assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani last year.

TOLOnews.com Saturday, 28 January 2012
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta still believes Pakistani officials knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding before US forces went to get him.

By ABDUL MATIN BEK The New York Times January 26, 2012
On the afternoon of Dec. 25, 2011, in the northern Takhar Province of Afghanistan, a funeral procession was gathering in a field on the outskirts of my hometown, the city of Taloqan, when a suicide bomber approached Mutalib Bek, a member of Parliament, and detonated his explosive vest. Mutalib Bek, who was my father, was killed instantly, along with 24 others, including a 12-year-old boy.

By Edward Cody and Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post
PARIS — France announced Friday that it will pull its combat forces out of Afghanistan one year ahead of the scheduled NATO withdrawal and said it would urge the rest of the alliance to do the same.

VOA News January 27, 2012
Afghan President Hamid Karzai meets with French President Nicolas Sarkozy Friday, a week after the French leader threatened to pull his troops out of Afghanistan early.

Washington Post By Kevin Sieff January 26, 2012
KABUL - One week after four French troops were killed by a rogue Afghan soldier, prompting President Nicolas Sarkozy to suspend military operations in Afghanistan, France will sign a bilateral agreement outlining its commitment here over the next two decades.

TOLOnews.com Thursday, 26 January 2012
Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Italy on Wednesday and met his Italian counterpart Giorgio Napolitano in advance of signing a strategic partnership agreement, the Office of the President said.

Reuters Jan 26, 2012
* France waiting for Karzai visit before decision
* NATO troops due to leave by 2014
The head of NATO called on France on Thursday to continue its training operations in Afghanistan until a planned withdrawal, despite the killing of four French soldiers by a rogue Afghan soldier.

Archaeologists are racing to save Afghanistan's cultural heritage before the Chinese start digging on one of the world's most valuable new copper mines
Wall Street Journal By MARISA MAZRIA KATZ JANUARY 27, 2012
For 1,500 years, the sandstone cliffs of afghanistan's Bamiyan valley encased two towering Buddhas peering sleepily from their caves onto patches of magnolia trees. Nearly 11 years ago, however, the statues were destroyed by tanks, explosives and antiaircraft weapons on the orders of the Taliban government, which condemned the Buddhas

PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Twenty more militants surrendered to the government in the north Afghan province of Baghlan, a provincial police source said Friday

TOLOnews.com Thursday, 26 January 2012
Afghan security forces took over security responsibilities of Jalalabad city and four other districts of eastern Nangarhar at an official ceremony in the province.

Foreign Policy By Josh Rogin Thursday, January 26, 2012
The State Department will soon begin reducing its presence in Afghanistan and consolidating its people into only a few locations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told State Department employees today.

WELLINGTON, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman is to attend defense talks regarding Afghanistan and other issues in Europe next week, the New Zealand government announced Friday.

New York Times By ABDUL MATIN BEK January 26, 2012 Op-Ed Contributor
On the afternoon of Dec. 25, 2011, in the northern Takhar Province of Afghanistan, a funeral procession was gathering in a field on the outskirts of my hometown, the city of Taloqan, when a suicide bomber approached Mutalib Bek, a member of Parliament, and detonated his explosive vest. Mutalib Bek, who was my father, was killed instantly, along with 24 others, including a 12-year-old boy.

ROME, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Italy will continue to provide support for Afghanistan, Prime Minister Mario Monti said here on Thursday after signing a cooperation agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Given the Taliban's history, women say it's critical that they're at the table to make sure concessions aren't made at their expense.
Christian Science Monitor By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent January 26, 2012
Kabul, Afghanistan - During the past year, the US and its NATO allies have placed increasing emphasis on bringing an end to the war in Afghanistan through negotiations. With the Taliban on the verge of getting a political office in Qatar, substantive talks now appear closer than ever before.

The Huffington Post 26/01/2012
By Wolfgang Danspeckgruber Founding Director of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination at Princeton University
Tension between Iran and the West has not been higher in recent memory. The debate about military strikes and crippling economic sanctions on Iran has been confined to the issues of efficacy, limitations, and potential reaction by the Iranians. However, there is a critical matter that sheds light on the potentially disastrous and costly ramifications

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, 27 January 2012 (IRIN) - Much of Dawood Boy’s village in northern Afghanistan is empty.
More than 1,000 families from Alburz in Balkh Province abandoned it 4-6 months ago after a drought affecting nearly half the country left 2.8 million people in need of food assistance, according to the World Food Programme.

Pakistani blockade squeezing availability of vehicle fuel.
IWPR By Khan Mohammad Danishju 26 Jan 12
Afghanistan - As fuel becomes scarcer and pricier in the Afghan capital Kabul, many are pointing the finger at NATO for buying up oil products domestically to make up for blocked supplies from Pakistan.

TOLOnews.com By Saleha Sadat, Afghanistan is not a country where new systems and structures should be tested every so often, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said told the Afghan parliament on Saturday.

KABUL, (Xinhua) -- Over a dozen Taliban insurgents surrendered to the government in Afghanistan's western province of Herat on Sunday, a p rovincial official said.

By Abdul Haleem
KABUL, (Xinhua) -- "The chilly weather and heavy snow have added to our pains as our children have gotten flu and respiratory diseases over the past few days," said Bibi Jan, a 40- year-old lady in Afghan capital Kabul.

Xinhua
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani agreed to keep NATO supplies to Afghanistan blocked till the parliament takes a decision, local media reported on Saturday.

TOLOnews.com A spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) on Saturday said that the closure of Pakistan's supply route has not created serious logistical problems for the coalition in Afghanistan.

By Kay Johnson, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press
KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that he personally held peace talks recently with the insurgent faction Hizb-i-Islami, appearing to assert his own role in a U.S.-led bid for negotiations to end the country's decade-long war.

By the CNN Wire Staff January 21, 2012
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- America's special envoy to the region talked peace and reconciliation with Hamid Karzai in Kabul Saturday, though the Afghan president made it clear that Afghans should be in the driver's seat.

By Dominique Chabrol and Joris Fioriti | AFP News
France appeared to lessen the prospect of an early withdrawal from the 10-year war in Afghanistan on Saturday, stressing its commitment to the country after an Afghan soldier killed four of its troops.

VOA News January 21, 2012
The French defense minister arrived in Kabul Saturday for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a day after an Afghan solider shot and killed four French troops.

By Amie Ferris-Rotman and Mirwais Harooni
KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan Taliban said on Saturday they had recruited an Afghan soldier who shot dead four French soldiers a day earlier, raising fears the militant group had managed to deepen its infiltration of the country's struggling security forces.

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Four civilians were killed and two others were injured Saturday in a mine blast in the country's southern province of Helmand, a police source said.

KABUL, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Five hundred more Afghan police officers will go to Turkey for training in the near future, Afghan Interior Minister Basmillah Mohammadi said on Saturday.

Toronto Star Fri Jan 20 2012
There’s nothing easy about leaving a loving family and friends to start life in a new country when you’re a 17-year-old Afghan girl. The distance between Kandahar’s dusty, deadly streets and Ottawa’s peaceful snow-swept ones can’t be measured only as the crow flies. They are whole wrenching worlds apart.

Reuters By Deborah Charles January 16, 2012
MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina - Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney said on Monday the United States should not negotiate with the Taliban and he criticized the Obama administration for efforts to broker secret talks with the Afghan insurgents.

KABUL, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Global Partnership for Education ( GPE) will provide 55.7 million U.S. dollars for the Afghan government to promote education quality in the war-torn country

VOA News January 17, 2012
Avalanches have killed at least 14 people in a mountainous region of northeastern Afghanistan.

January 17, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
An Afghan calligrapher has created what is being billed as the world’s largest Koran.

The ambitious project has been heralded in Afghanistan as a historic achievement, and potentially eclipses another massive Koran unveiled just two months ago.

TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Abrahimkhil Monday, 16 January 2012
No kinds of peace accords with the Taliban will succeed if the group does not accept the Afghan constitution and if there is no ceasefire, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission says.

KABUL, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- A prominent drug baron was captured in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, the NATO-led ISAF forces said on Tuesday.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan Taliban local leader was killed in a search operation in the country's eastern province of Ghazni, a provincial security official said on Tuesday.

The Diplomat Magazine, (Abu Dhabi) – Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces inaugurated the fifth World Future Energy Summit (WFES 2012); hosted by Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).

KABUL, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale jolted Hindu Kush region, Afghanistan at 22:50:00 GMT on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

KABUL, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Three hundred and eighty six policemen after completion of eight-week training course commissioned to Afghan National Police on Saturday.

Child suicide bombers say they were told by their handlers that the "bombs would not kill us, only the Americans would die".
Telegraph.co.uk By Ben Farmer 13 Jan 2012
Kandahar - The mission was as simple as touching two wires together, the little boy was promised. The resulting blast would obliterate the American infidels – but God would spare him from the flame and shrapnel. Abdul Samat would be unharmed and free to run back to the men who had fitted his bomb vest.

Foreign Policy By Lael A. Mohib Friday, January 13, 2012
Audiences around the world were horrified to see the image of Bibi Aisha, a young Afghan girl whose nose had been cut off by her husband and his family, on the cover of an August 2010 issue of TIME Magazine. Western media outlets largely attributed Aisha's case to the Taliban, and portrayed it as a warning of what is to come for Afghan women

Courses teach women to read and write, defying prejudice against female education
IWPR By Jalil Mohammadi 13 Jan 12
Afghanistan - Nazira looked up proudly from a notebook bearing a United Nations logo to show a series of words written in red ink.

Jonathan S. Landay and Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers January 12, 2012 06:21:05 AM
WASHINGTON — A new top-secret U.S. intelligence assessment warns that Taliban leaders haven't abandoned their goal of reclaiming power and reimposing harsh Islamic rule on Afghanistan, raising doubts about the success of any peace deal that the Obama administration tries to broker between Kabul and the insurgents.

The sobering judgments in a classified National Intelligence Estimate appear at odds with recent optimistic statements about the war by Pentagon officials.
By Ken Dilanian and David S. Cloud, Los Angeles Times January 11, 2012
Reporting from Washington - The U.S. intelligence community says in a secret new assessment that the war in Afghanistan is mired in sta lemate, and warns that security gains from an increase in American troops have been undercut by pervasive corruption, incompetent governance and Taliban fighters operating from neighboring Pakistan, according to U.S. officials.

TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday said that recent meeting between the members of the Afghan National Front and some of the US republican lawmakers in Berlin was against th e Afghan constitution.

January 12, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The leader of Afghanistan’s main political opposition says peace talks with the Taliban need to more inclusive, f ollowing a meeting between several other Afghan opposition leaders and members of the U.S. Congress in Berlin.*

TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday said that recent meeting between the members of the Afghan National Front and some of the US republican lawmakers in Berlin was against th e Afghan constitution.

The Huffington Post By Khalil Nouri Co-founder of New World Strategies Coalition, Inc. 11/01/2012
Taliban and "peace mission" -- these words do not fit together in the minds of Afghans who know the Taliban's history. But they are the words that we have seen in recent publications, stating that the Taliban intend to open a "peace mission" office in Qatar. The idea is that foreign diplomats can stop by, share a cup of tea, eat some munchies, and talk about ending the insurgency in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington has not made any decisions about releasing the Taliban prisoners from the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Reuters By Agnieszka Flak and Hassib Sadat Mon Jan 2, 2012
KABUL - Teenage Afghan sisters Shabnam and Sadaf Rahimi are taking the fight for women's rights more literally than most of their peers, throwing punches in a ring as members of their country's first team of female boxers.

VOA News January 2, 2012
Afghan officials say a 15-year-old girl brutally tortured for months by her in-laws will be sent to India for medical treatment.

KABUL, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan National Army (ANA) have eliminated at least 24 suspected insurgents and detained 120 others during joint and independent operations over the past month, a spokesman for the country's Defense Ministry said on Monday.

New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN January 1, 2012
NAKILABAD KALAY, Afghanistan - This stretch of the Helmand River Valley, the heart of the nation’s poppy-growing area, stands as a showcase for one of NATO’s most ambitious offensives against the Taliban and the drug trade. But now, the area is also becoming an object lesson in the resilience of militants and opium producers alike.

VOA News January 2, 2012
NATO hopes to mend relations with Pakistan quickly in order to reopen key supply routes for its forces fighting in neighboring Afghanistan.

KABUL, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- About 380 anti-government insurgents have laid down arms and joined the government-backed peace process in Afghanistan's Badghis province, 555 km northwest of capital Kabul, last year, local media reported Sunday.

Associated Press December 31, 2011
OKARA, Pakistan - Sultan Mehmood Gujar was a solid supporter of Islamist militants fighting in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India and even donated money to them, until he attended an innovative 40-day lecture series by a moderate cleric aimed at countering violent extremism.

By PATRICK QUINN and SLOBODAN LEKIC
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's government signed a deal Wednesday with China's state-owned National Petroleum Corporation, allowing it to become the first foreign company to exploit the country's oil and natural gas reserves.

By Joe Sinclair | AFP – Tue, 27 Dec, 2011
The head of the UN refugee programme in Afghanistan on Tuesday described its strategy in the war-wracked country since 2002 as the "biggest mistake UNHCR ever made".

By Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post
The Obama administration, as part of an accelerated push toward anendgame in Afghanistan, last month reached a tentative accord with Taliban negotiators that would have included the transfer of five Afghans from U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the Taliban’s public renunciation of international terrorism.

VOA News December 23, 2011
Pakistan's military has rejected the findings of a U.S. inquiry into last month's coalition attack that killed 24 Pakistan soldiers at Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

VOA News December 23, 2011
Pakistan's army chief is denying reports the military is looking to oust the civilian government from power amid a scandal over a memo

BBC News 22 December 11
Conspirators are plotting to bring down Pakistan's civilian government, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said.

KABUL, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Three civilians were killed on Friday when a mine went off in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, country's Interior Ministry said

KABUL, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- A Taliban rebel was killed and three policemen were injured on Friday in a clash that broke out after the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in the country's relatively peaceful Ghor province, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.

AFP 22/12/2011
An unmanned helicopter capable of carrying more than 3,500 pounds of cargo (1.6 tonnes) has begun supplying troops in Afghanistan, US military officials said Thursday.

NPR December 23, 2011
After the fall of the Taliban, Abdul Wahkeel was the first potter to return to the Afghan village of Istalif.

In the corner of a Kabul neighborhood where almost every family lost someone in an early December bombing, the psychological and economic effects are far-reaching.
Christian Science Monitor By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent December 22, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan - Before a bomb blast killed his son and injured three of his daughters, hospitalizing two of them, life was anything but easy for Ahmad Shah. Like many in his poor Kabul neighborhood, he eked out enough to survive by pulling a rickshaw-like cart made of scrap wood. Merchants who either had a small load or couldn’t afford a truck hired Mr. Shah to drag their goods across town on his cart.

TOLOnews.com By Miriam Arghandiwal Thursday, 22 December 2011
A closed book, bearing as a country's forgotten gem, retrieved by a group of twenty men who wiped off its dust, opened its worn cover and turned a new page.

Reuters By Mary Slosson Thu Dec 22, 2011
Remains of a San Diego man suspected of killing a former head of the Afghanistan central bank who fled to the United States as a political fugitive have been found, police said on Thursday.

JAKARTA, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Office has extended a search and rescue operation for missing illegal migrants after their ship sank on Saturday in the waters off East Java to another 7 days as there are still many missing persons, spokesman of the office Gagah Prakoso said here on Friday.

CANBERRA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Australian troop commander in Afghanistan on Tuesday said Afghan soldiers who killed four Australian troops in separate attacks have been all linked to the insurgency.

TOLOnews.com Monday, 19 December 2011
Afghanistan should not sacrifice the gains made over the past decade by holding peace talks with Taliban, defenders of those gains warned on Monday.

by Vienna Ma
CANBERRA, Dec. 20 ( Xinhua) -- The United Nations' refugee agency said on Tuesday the deaths of asylum seekers on a boat near Indonesia reinforced the need for international solidarity on refugee policy.

Xinhua Dec. 19, 2011
HERAT, Afghanistan - Personnel of Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) have detained eight terrorists in different parts of western Herat province and recovered explosive materials, provincial department of NDS said on Monday.

Afghan airline appoints dnata as its GSA

Safi Airways, one of the leading International airlines of Afghanistan,  has appointed dnata as its General Sales Agent (GSA) representing the  airline for its new flight between Abu Dhabi and Kabul.

Associated Press via The Huffington Post
KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO will carry out nighttime kill-and-capture raids against suspected insurgents with increased participation from Afghan special fo rces, the alliance said Monday, after repeated protests by President Hamid Karzai.

By the CNN Wire Staff Sun December 18, 2011
Kabul (CNN) -- Afghanistan's government can't hold peace talks with its Taliban insurgents until the Islamic militia identifies a representative with the authority to negotiate, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview that aired Sunday.

AFP via Yahoo! News - Dec 19 12:52pm
The Afghan government on Monday appealed for international help to boost talks with the Taliban and other armed opposition groups.

KABUL, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- A NATO spokesman on Monday said more time was needed to train Afghan Special Forces to carry out unilateral night raid operations on insurgents, while insisting it is the safest form of raids and will continue in the insurgency- hit country.

AFP 18/12/2011
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that his government is negotiating the terms of a long-term US presence in his country that could involve US troops.

By Sanjeev Miglani | Reuters
KABUL (Reuters) - Pakistan has restored liaison officers at coordination centers on the Afghanistan border, NATO said on Monday, in a slight easing of tensions, after NATO air strikes last month killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers and provoked fury across the country.

Reuters Sun Dec 18, 2011
KABUL - Italy, struggling with a debt mountain at home, will lend Afghanistan 137 million euros ($179 million) to renovate and expand an airport in western province Herat, the Afghan president's office said in a statement at the weekend.


.

By Tom Vanden Brook - USA Today via Army Times Monday Dec 19, 2011 10:45:38 EST
KABUL, Afghanistan — Top American officials in Afghanistan say the U.S. military intends to maintain a troop presence here beyond a 2014 deadline for Afghan troops to take over.

HERAT, Afghanistan, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Personnel of Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) have detained eight terrorists in different parts of western Herat province and recovered explosive materials, provincial department of NDS said on Monday.

Dec. 19, 2011 at 4:48 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Afghanistan has indicated it is seeking Australia's involvement in tapping into the Asian country's massive mining potential.

AP By RAHIM FAIEZ 18/12/2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's new central bank governor expressed confidence Sunday that the government can recover up to 80 percent of the $825 million it cost to bail out the private Kabul Bank.

By RAHIM FAIEZ | AP – Sat, Dec 17, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan security forces and international troops freed 11 Afghan policemen kidnapped by militants nearly two weeks ago, the Defense Ministry said Saturday.

JAKARTA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers on Monday found 15 other missing migrants after their wooden ship sank in the waters off Trenggalek district of East Java province on Saturday, bringing the total rescued survivor to 48, while more than 200 are still missing, an Indonesian official said.

Kajaki dam turbine, hauled 100 miles across Helmand by British forces, may be deemed not cost-effective to install
Guardian.co.uk By Jon Boone Monday 12 December 2011

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- A music shop was destroyed as a bomb planted by unknown men went off in Nangarhar province, 120 km east of Afghan capital city Kabul, on Tuesday, an official said.

13 December 2011 BBC News
A US Congressional panel has frozen $700m (£450m) in aid to Pakistan until it gives assurances it is tackling the spread of homemade bombs in the region.

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar Tuesday said that Pakistan is also reviewing its policy about Afghanistan in the envoy conference underway in Islamabad.

Asia Times By Amir Mir 12/12/2011
ISLAMABAD - With the Pakistan Taliban finally holding peace talks with a government in Islamabad that is increasingly seen at odds with the United States in the aftermath of the November 26 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air strike that killed 25 soldiers, Pakistani suicide bombers seem to have shifted the focus of their deadly attacks from their homeland to neighboring Afghanistan.

10 years later, life isn't just better -- it's much better
Foreign Policy BY CHARLES KENNY DECEMBER 12, 2011

RFE/RL December 12, 2011
Pakistani Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani says his country's blockade of NATO supply lines into Afghanistan -- ordered in retaliation for a deadly NATO helicopter attack in Pakistan -- is likely to stay in place for weeks.

VOA News December 13, 2011
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is in Afghanistan to check on the progress of U.S.-led counterinsurgency efforts, which he says reached a “turning point” this year after a decade of fighting the Taliban.

Bloomberg By Viola Gienger Dec 10, 2011
The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan is seeking to enable a steady pace of troop withdrawals after September by bolstering the capabilities of the Afghan army and police.

By ROD NORDLAND December 10, 2011 The New York Times
KABUL, Afghanistan — The American ambassador to Afghanistan on Saturday raised the possibility that United States combat troops could stay in the country beyond the 2014 deadline that the White House had set for their withdrawal.

By Ernesto Londoño, The Washington Post December 10
KABUL — The U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan said Saturday that the United States has virtually no information about the motive or culprit behind a rare suicide bombing that killed scores of Shiite worshipers earlier in the week, but he asserted that it was unlikely to spawn sectarian violence.

AFP
Afghan President Hamid Karzai will visit Britain next week to sign a strategic partnership deal with London following a conference on Afghanistan's future in Germany, his office said Friday.

TOLOnews.com Thursday, 01 December 2011
A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday said that Pakistan's boycott of Bonn conference on Afghanistan will have no negative impact.

Deadly Border Strike Came After Forces Were Told Area Was Clear of Pakistani Troops, Officials Say
Wall Street Journal By JULIAN E. BARNES and ADAM ENTOUS DECEMBER 2, 2011

Marine Gen. John R. Allen wants 1,700 more military personnel to lead hundreds of new advisor teams to be assigned beginning next year to Afghan units battling the Taliban insurgency, officials say.

Officials argue need for special court to clear backlog of security-related cases.
IWPR By Mina Habib 23 Nov 11

By Angus Crawford 24 November 2011 BBC News
Afghan children whose asylum claims have failed may be sent back to Kabul by the UK from next year.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Wednesday announced the appointment of Jan Kubis of Slovakia as his special representative and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Ban's spokesman said here.

VOA News November 24, 2011
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned a NATO airstrike that reportedly killed seven civilians, mostly children, in southern Afghanistan.

KABUL, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Afghan police raided Taliban hideouts in Kajaki district of Helmand 555 km south of Afghan capital city Kabul in the wee hours of Sunday, a press release of provincial administration said.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces during a cleanup operation against Taliban militants in Ghanzi province 125 km south of capital city Kabul, captured the outfit's financial in-charge on Sunday, an Afghan army officer in the province Dillawar Shah Dillawar said.

KABUL, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up in Logar province, 60 km south of Kabul on Sunday, killing himself and wounding two others, the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement released here.

New York Times By AISHA CHOWDHRY November 16, 2011

Foreign Policy By Raffaello Pantucci Wednesday, November 16, 2011

More than 300 craftsmen labored years shoring up the fortress in western Afghanistan, which opened last month as a museum and cultural center. At the opening, there was hopeful talk of a tourist draw.

KABUL, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Police killed two Taliban commanders in an operation in southern Afghan province of Uruzgan on Wednesday, Interior Ministry said in a press release Thursday.

KABUL, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Afghan security forces, backed by NATO-led Coalition troops, have killed 27 insurgents and captured six others over the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Financial Times By Matthew Green and Geoff Dyer November 17, 2011
Islamabad, Washington - Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington has been summoned to Islamabad following reports that he sought US help to rein in the country’s powerful generals in the wake of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, officials said.

UK armed forces to patrol larger area in southern Afghan province but a return to Sangin ruled out
Guardian.co.uk By Nick Hopkins Monday 7 November 2011
British forces are planning to take responsibility for a larger area of Helmand province to cover parts affected by the withdrawal of thousands of US troops from Afghanistan

By ROD NORDLAND The New York Times November 8, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan officials said Tuesday that insurgents once again attacked during the Id al-Adha holiday, killing 11 people, most of them civilians.

Tehran accused of derailing screening of films depicting abuse of Afghan refugees.
IWPR By Abdul Latif Sahak, Khan Mohammad Danishju 8 Nov 11
Afghanistan - A controversial film depicting the plight of Afghan refugees in Iran was pulled at the eleventh hour in Kabul, sparking angry allegations that the authorities had caved into pressure from Tehran.

KABUL, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday left for Maldives to attend the 17th the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, a statement released by his office said.

MELBOURNE, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday said another attack on Australian soldiers serving in Afghanistan will cause many to question the mission, but the country is committed to the war until the scheduled withdrawal in 2014.

VOA News November 9, 2011
Afghan officials says Afghan and NATO troops have killed at least 70 Taliban militants who launched an attack on a base near the Pakistani border.

By Associated Press,
ISTANBUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday appealed to Pakistan for help in the investigation of the assassination of an Afghan peace envoy, and said efforts to talk directly to the Taliban are futile as long as the insurgents show no desire to negotiate in good faith.

By Burak Akinci | AFP
Afghanistan and Pakistan on Tuesday agreed to cooperate with an investigation into the murder of former Afghan leader and peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani, the Turkish president said

Jonathon Burch and Myra MacDonald
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan urged Pakistan on Tuesday to "move beyond words" and take concrete steps to curb Islamist militants which it said were a threat to both countries.

By Associated Press, November 1, 2011
AKORA KHATTAK, Pakistan — At the hard-line Islamic school that spawned a generation of Afghan Taliban leaders, the top cleric still lectures his students to go to Afghanistan to fight Americans. But he says he’s willing to help bring insurgents to peace talks.

By Arshad Mohammed | Reuters – Mon, Oct 31, 2011
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States wants Afghanistan's neighbors to pledge to respect its sovereignty at regional talks this week, a U.S. official said on Monday, even as Washington accuses Pakistan and Iran of meddling.

Financial Times By Daniel Dombey and Matthew Green October 31, 2011
Istanbul and Islamabad - Turkey is bringing together leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan in an attempt to reduce tensions that Ahmet Davutoglu, Ankara’s foreign minister, says could complicate efforts to end the war against the Taliban.

VOA News November 1, 2011
Luis Ramirez | Lewis-McChord Military Base, Washington State
An American soldier is on trial for the murders of unarmed non-combatants in Afghanistan in what is alleged to have been the worst known case of misconduct by U.S. troops during the Afghan conflict.

Washington Post By Karen DeYoung Tuesday, November 1, 2011
The Obama administration has launched a revised strategy for Afghanistan that officials hope will lead to substantive negotiations with insurgents and regional support for a political end to the war.

MAIDAN SHAR, Afghanistan, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Four children were killed when a roadside bomb went off in Afghanistan's Wardak province with Maidan Shar as its capital 35 km west of capital city of Kabul on Monday, a spokesman for provincial administration said on Tuesday.

KABUL, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Afghan police backed by army and NATO- led troops have eliminated 11 anti-government

Education ministry closes ten schools and warns many others to raise standards.
IWPR By Maiwand Safi, Mina Habib 31 Oct 11
Afghanistan - The Afghan government is tightening up on private-sector education in the capital Kabul, accusing some schools of falling far below the required standards of teaching.

New York Times By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER October 30, 2011

KABUL, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai, heading a high-ranking delegation, left for Turkey on Monday, a statement released by the Presidential Palace here said.

ANKARA, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Turkey condemned the recent attacks staged in Afghanistan, a Turkish statement said late Sunday

TOLOnews.com Sunday, 30 October 2011
Afghanistan is to sign a strategic agreement with France ahead of the Istanbul conference, Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.

USA TODAY By Aisha Chowdhry, Special for USA TODAY 25/10/2011
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan - The massive Buddhas that were carved into the sandstone cliffs here 15 centuries ago are gone, and so too are those who dynamited them into oblivion

ASSADABAD, Afghanistan, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- A rocket fired by anti-government militants struck a hous e in Kunar province, 185 km east of capital city Kabul, on Wednesday, injuring eight civilians, an official said.

From Matiullah Mati, For CNN October 26, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- At least 10 people died and 35 others were injured Wednesday when a tanker filled with tons of fuel and strapped with a mine exploded near a U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan, a government official said

by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Militants-linked violent incidents claimed the lives of at least six civilians and injured 58 others since Tuesday in the militancy-plagued Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.

TOLOnews.com Tuesday, 25 October 2011
The Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development said on Tuesday that more than 7 million people are facing drought and starvation in the country.

Reuters Wed Oct 26, 2011
BRUSSELS - The European Union plans to provide assistance and development aid in Afghanistan beyond the complete handover of security responsibility to Afghans, scheduled for 2014, the EU's Afghanistan representative said on Tuesday.

By Associated Press, Wednesday, October 26, 6:47 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan forces could soon take charge of security in all or parts of 17 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces — the second step in a transition that President Hamid Karzai hopes will leave his police and soldiers in control across the nation by the end of 2014, government officials said Wednesday.

Wed Oct 26, 2011 11:00am EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Pakistan's security service provides weapons and training to Taliban insurgents fighting U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan, despite official denials, Taliban commanders say, in allegations that could worsen tensions between Pakistan and the United States.

By Associated Press, Sunday, October 30, 5:32 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan — In an Afghan capital scarred by years of war, a young Afghan woman has bet $1 million that her countrymen could use a little fun

AFP via Yahoo! News - Oct 29 11:50pm
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard defended her country's involvement in Afghanistan after three troops were shot dead and seven wounded in an attack by a rogue Afghan soldier

By Michael Perry
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Commonwealth leaders on Saturday vowed to step up the fight against polio, but said the Afghanistan war was hindering the fight and warned that without total eradication there could be a resurgence of the crippling disease

By Axel Hildebrand | Reuters
BERLIN (Reuters) - Pakistan's secret service spied on German security forces in Afghanistan, raising fears sensitive information could end up in the hands of the Taliban, a German paper reported on Sunday

KABUL, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Afghan troops, backed by NATO-led coalition forces, have killed 24 Taliban insurgents and captured 10 others over the past 24 hours, Afghan Interior Ministry said Saturday

By MATTHEW LEE - Associated Press
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged Central Asian nations on Saturday to play a role in securing and rebuilding war-torn Afghanistan, promoting the concept of a "new Silk Road" that would benefit the entire region.

Wall Street Journal By Tom Wright October 21, 2011
When Pakistan appointed Hina Rabbani Khar, a 33-year-old politician, as its first female foreign minister earlier this year, there was some suggestion that she lacked experience for the job.

By Muhammad Tahir
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) - U.S. Secretary of States Hillary Clinton has left Islamabad at the conclusion of her two- day trip but has delivered a message of urgency for the Pakistani civil and military leadership to act against the groups, blamed for cross-border attacks into Afghanistan

By Sebastian Abbot, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press
ISLAMABAD - Despite some tough talk, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's recent visit to Pakistan seemed to subtly soften Washington's stand on a key point of contention between the two countries: whether Islamabad should take military action against Pakistan-based insurgents fighting American troops in Afghanistan, or try to engage them in peace talks.

By Abdul, Haleem
KABUL, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- "On average, I personally remit some 2,000 Dirham which is equal to 26,000 Afghanis (around 578 U.S. dollars) send to my family in Khost province each month," Katib Gul said.

October 21, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty By Frud Bezhan
Gray desert surrounds the camp, a forbidding compound of watchtowers, mud walls, and razor wire.

Beyond the iron gates, dozens of makeshift tents dot the sands inside the compound, where hundreds of refugees -- men, women, and children -- lie in human excrement and other filth.

An Obama doctrine of 'strategic patience' helped to bring down Qaddafi. But Obama's impatience to exit Afghanistan only allows Pakistan and the Taliban to wait out the US.
Christian Science Monitor By the Monitor's Editorial Board October 21, 2011
Lest it go unnoticed, it was American patience that triumphed over Muammar Qaddafi as much as NATO bombs.

The Canberra Times BY DAVID ELLERY, DEFENCE REPORTER 14 Oct, 2011
Australia would have spent about $6billion on the war in Afghanistan by the time our troops leave in 2014, according to Defence.

Sydney Morning Herald By Daniel Flitton, Rafael Epstein October 14, 2011
AUSTRALIAN forces expect to pull back from more than a dozen bases in Afghanistan to just four by early next year as local forces take control, the Defence Minister, Stephen Smith, said yesterday.

VOA News October 14, 2011
Pakistani intelligence officials say a U.S. drone strike has killed four militants in the country's northwest, the third such attack in less than two days

New York Times By C. J. CHIVERS October 13, 2011
OBSERVATION POST TWINS, Afghanistan - Much of what the Pentagon hopes to accomplish in Afghanistan before withdrawing most of its forces by 2014 is visible from this small, sandbagged mountaintop, where the risks and ambitions guiding the latest effort to reshape a foreign nation are equally clear.

By  Sara A. Carter, Washington Examiner

A fortress built by the Soviet army in the 1980s serves as an outpost for U.S. troops in this hotly contested corner of Afghanistan, and it also serves as a daily reminder to soldiers here that America's stay in this country has an expiration date.

RTT News

NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has claimed that "the legitimate government of Afghanistan has grown over the past 10 years, bringing prosperity and an improved quality of life to Afghanistan."

By Staff Writers, Space War

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday he was confident the transition from NATO to local control of security in Afghanistan will be completed by 2014 as planned.

Xinhua

"Some" American forces are likely to remain in Afghanistan after 2014, when security responsibilities are scheduled to be handed over to the Afghan government, a U.S. special envoy said Monday amid a worsening security situation in the war-torn country.

By Kamran Yousaf, Express Tribune

The Pakistan Army is ready to address the US concerns vis-à-vis the Haqqani network but shows no signs of going after them in the North Waziristan tribal region where, Washington believes, the insurgent group is headquartered.

India Times

Applauding India's key role in Afghanistan, the US has said that New Delhi has been helpful in providing training to the security forces of the war-torn country to help improve the situation there.

By Heidi Vogt and Amir Shah, Associated Press

Afghanistan’s president said Monday that Pakistan has broken promises to help end the Taliban-led insurgency but that he hopes the two countries can work together like brothers — softening his rhetoric after days of tough talk in which he had suggested relations were about to break down.

By Adam Plowright, AFP

Afghanistan and India, two nations united in their suspicion of Pakistan, are set to forge closer ties Tuesday as Hamid Karzai visits New Delhi during a highly unstable time in South Asia.

BBC

A key leader of the Afghan militant group, the Haqqani network, has told the BBC it was not responsible for killing Burhanuddin Rabbani, the man overseeing Taliban peace talks.

News Release, ICRC

Ten years after the start of a new chapter in Afghanistan's 30-year war, Afghans remain caught in the midst of continued armed violence. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), security and health care are the biggest humanitarian problems facing the people of Afghanistan today.

By Martha Raddatz, ABC News

Gen. John Allen is now the eighth U.S. commander in charge of the war, charged not only with fighting the unpopular war but bringing it to an end.

Allen's biggest challenge is the attacks on his troops by fighters coming from safe havens in Pakistan, he said, a nation to which American gives billions of dollars a year.

By Zhou Xin, Reuters

The vast majority of Afghan women are worried about a return to power of a Taliban-style government and over a third say the departure of foreign troops will make the country worse off, according to a survey released on Monday.

By Dion Nissenbaum and Maria Abi-Habib, Wall Street Journal

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his top aides said they are abandoning efforts at peace talks with the Taliban after concluding that the Pakistan-based insurgent leaders aren't serious about negotiations.

"The peace process which we began is dead," Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Mr. Karzai's national security adviser, said in an interview Saturday. "It's a joke."

By Hamid Shalizi, Reuters

Afghanistan's intelligence agency said on Saturday that it had handed Pakistan evidence that the Taliban's leadership plotted the recent assassination of ex-president and government peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani on Pakistani soil.

UKPA

Britain has the "resources and resolve" to succeed in Afghanistan, the Government has insisted after 10 years of war in the country.

Reuters

NATO-led forces said on Saturday that they had captured the senior commander for the Haqqani network in Afghanistan, Haji Mali Khan, during an operation in eastern Paktia province earlier in the week.

UN News Center

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today renewed the commitment of the United Nations to assist the people of Afghanistan during talks with the country’s Foreign Minister in New York.

Asia Tribune

Asserting that there cannot be a "selective approach" in the fight against terrorism, India on Tuesday hoped that Pakistan will be "serious" in dismantling terror camps on its soil and live up to its pronouncements.

By Jill Dougherty and Elise Labott, CNN

The United States will soon designate the Haqqani network, the al Qaeda-linked group considered to be a major threat against U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, as a foreign terrorist organization, U.S. officials tell CNN.

By Jonathan Steele, Guardian

Car bombs and suicide attacks, which have become a permanent threat in today's Kabul, were unknown during the Soviet period, and Afghans went about their daily business without fear of sudden mass slaughter.

By Rahim Faiez, Associated Press

Afghan defense officials warned Pakistan on Sunday to stop firing rockets and heavy artillery into the northeast of the country or the military will respond with force. Pakistan denied it was responsible.

South Asian News Agency

Foreign Minister of Pakistan held a bilateral meeting with her Afghan counterpart Dr. Zalmai Rassoul on the sidelines of the 66th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

By Anurag Joshi, Business Week

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said U.S. policy on Afghanistan shows a “confusion and policy disarray” and the nations need to coordinate action to combat terrorism.

By Sandeep Dikshit, The Hindu

With the assassination of Afghanistan's chief peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani, India is hoping that its Russia-backed desire of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) getting itself involved as a grouping would gain traction.

Recognising the crucial role that Tashkent will play in the NDN, the U.S. has already warmed up to Uzbekistan. In fact, it was the sharp U.S. reaction to the troubles in Uzbekistan's Andijan province in 2005 that led to Tashkent accelerating its involvement with the SCO.

Frontier Post

Hezb-e-Islami Gulbadin Hekmatyar has said they never showed interest in attending Bonn Conference—to be held in December this year—and see solution to the Afghan issue in the withdraw of foreign forces.

The Globe and Mail

In Panjwaii fields the poppies grow.

Their delicate shades of pastel mauve and pink providing a defiant splash of colour set off against startlingly green grape fields or an otherwise drab brown vista.

Reuters

Pakistan's military has fired hundreds of mortars and rockets into border provinces in neighboring Afghanistan, killing at least one civilian, destroying homes and forcing scores of villagers to flee, Afghan officials said on Sunday.

By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press

 A building used by the CIA in Kabul came under attack Sunday, U.S. and Afghan officials said, the latest in a series of attacks in the Afghan capital.

By Associated Press

Pakistan’s army chief convened a special meeting of senior commanders Sunday following U.S. allegations that the military’s spy agency helped militants attack American targets in Afghanistan, the army said.

Press Release: US State Department

United States Government Allocates $268 Million for Joint Afghan Justice and Counternarcotics Programs.

ABC

World leaders have condemned the assassination of Afghan peace-broker and ex-president Burhanuddin Rabbani, saying the Taliban will not prevail despite a series of devastating high-profile attacks.

Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday condemned the killing of the head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, and vowed it would not stop the United States from pressing on with its mission there.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, at the start of talks with Obama on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, said Rabbani's death "will not deter us" from continuing the quest for peace.

Ahmed Rashid, Financial Times

Much has rightly been made of the audacious attack on Kabul last week by a group of heavily armed Taliban insurgents, which was clearly aimed at sabotaging peace talks between the Taliban, the Americans and the Afghan government. Rather less attention however has been given to the other pressing issues threatening the talks – the deep divisions within President Barack Obama’s administration over their future, and his apparent failure to exercise control over his officials.

By Jon Boone in Kabul, Guardian

Members of British and Afghan special forces were seriously injured during last week's Kabul siege after Afghanistan's interior minister barged onto the scene at 3am and ordered the "cowards" to rush the final assault, Afghan and international officials say.

By Matthew Green, Financial Times

Growing outrage provoked by night raids on suspected insurgents is jeopardising US strategy for withdrawing from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, researchers have warned.

Xinhua

 NATO has confidence in the capability of Afghan security forces and Afghanistan remains the key operation for NATO, a NATO spokesman said on Monday, adding the alliance continues to remain committed to the operations in the militancy-hit country.

TREND

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will commence electricity export to Pakistan and Afghanistan by 2016, KyrTAG reports quoting Kyrgyz Deputy Premier Omurbek Babanov 's statement.

By Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, Huffington Post

As the U.S. economy grinds down to a finish, it becomes increasingly difficult to measure whether Washington understands the importance of how to deal realistically with the worsening crisis in Afghanistan.

By Lianne Gutcher, Special for USA Today

Asked about the rigors of being a female cop in this sparsely populated Afghan province, Fatima Tajik is blunt

Want China Times

China National Petroleum Corporation won Afghanistan's first oilfield auction in ten years on Friday. The deal will help China to secure energy sources and increase its presence in Afghanistan.

By Michael Hughes, Examiner

U.S. officials suspect Pakistan’s powerful spy agency was in league with Taliban elements in executing this week’s attacks in Kabul against the U.S. embassy and NATO headquarters, according to Matthew Rosenberg and Siobhan Gorman in the Wall Street Journal, who write:

By Ruhullah Khapalwak, CNN

A roadside bomb has killed nine civilians, including five children in Afghanistan's northern Faryab province, an area often considered to be among the country's more stable regions.

By Michael Crowley, Time

Rick Perry is still laboring to articulate a clear position on Afghanistan. At Monday night’s Republican debate, Perry–who has no real foreign policy experience beyond flying Air Force cargo planes abroad–seemed to endorse Jon Huntsman’s call for a major drawdown from Afghanistan. Yesterday, an unnamed Perry adviser revised and extended the gentleman’s remarks for Foreign Policy:

Associated Press

It cost nearly $2 billion over the last two years to send hundreds of extra U.S. civilians to Afghanistan to help with development projects, the economy and training Afghan government officials, a report said Thursday.

By the CNN Wire Staff

The U.S. ambassador to Pakistan accused the government there of having links to the Haqqani network, a pro-Taliban militant group that U.S. officials blame for this week's attack on the U.S. Embassy and NATO command center in Kabul, Afghanistan.

By Matthew Rosenberg And Siobhan Gorman, Wall Street Journal

U.S. officials say they are looking for evidence that directly links elements of Pakistan's powerful spy agency to this week's assault on the U.S. Embassy and coalition headquarters in Kabul, a sign of just how rancorous relations have become between the two allies in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Pakistan Today

The United States has endorsed plans for the Taliban to open political headquarters in the Gulf state of Qatar by the end of the year, British newspaper The Times reported on Monday. The move is designed to allow the West to begin formal peace talks with the Taliban, Western diplomats told the paper.

By Mohammed Al Shafey, Asharq Al-Awsat

Ryan Crocker, US Ambassador to Afghanistan, recently spoke to Asharq al-Awsat via telephone interview. He said that he was travelling by air to New York on the morning of September 11th 2001, the date of the infamous terrorist attacks, and witnessed firsthand the collapse of the World Trade Center.

By Jerome Starkey in Kabul, Scots Man

Afghanistan's second-largest insurgent group sent a clandestine delegation to Kabul last week, for a second round of high-level peace talks, Afghan officials have told The Scotsman.

By Jeremy Kelly in Kabul, Guardian

US-backed Afghan militias are committing murder, rape, torture and extortion, risking increasing support for the insurgent groups they were designed to fight against, a prominent human rights group has said.

The Peninsula Qatar

Nato is on track to build a 195,000-strong Afghan national army (ANA) by 2014 when foreign forces will hand over security responsibilities, a Nato official said yesteray, despite a stubbornly high rate of desertions.  

By Associated Press

The Haqqani insurgent network was behind the powerful truck bomb that wounded 77 U.S. soldiers and killed five Afghans, the Pentagon said Monday.

By Eltaf Najafizada and James Rupert, Bloomberg

China National Petroleum Corp. offered the highest royalty and a refinery to win Afghanistan’s first oilfield auction last month, using a strategy that helped Chinese companies gain access to African resources

IRIN

Despite billions of dollars in aid and government funding over the past decade, Afghanistan still has about four million school-age children out of school, officials say.

By Associated Press

A senior Afghan official predicted Friday that the United States and Afghanistan will soon sign a broad deal for U.S. use of Afghan soil for counter-terrorism missions and U.S. obligations to the fledgling democracy it has sponsored since toppling the Taliban regime in Afghanistan weeks after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Phil Ittner, Voice of America

Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States began a new engagement in the Muslim world. One of the key architects of that engagement is the newly-appointed U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker.

TOLO news

Global terrorism will not end until the international community applies serious pressure on the Pakistani government, Afghanistan's former spy chief said on Saturday.

USA Today News

President Obama is calling on America to come together on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and look to a shared future, even while reflecting on a decade filled with strife.

By Ray Rivera, The Seattle Times

 Every morning, jobless young men gather by the hundreds at the busy central square here in this southern city, desperate for whatever work they can find. In other places, this would be an army recruiter's dream. Not so in Kandahar.

By Rahim Faiez and Adam Goldman, Associated Press

A large Taliban truck bomb struck the gate of a NATO combat outpost in eastern Afghanistan Saturday, killing two civilians and injuring others, the coalition said.

By Emma Graham-Harrison, Stuff

The United States must keep fighting the Taleban or risk more attacks like those of September 11, 2001, because the insurgent group is a ruthless enemy that has not cut ties to al Qaeda, the US ambassador to Kabul said.

AFP

Pakistan is the "main threat" to Afghanistan and its intelligence service is "the biggest danger" to the government in Kabul, a US senator recently returned from the region warned Tuesday.

Tribune, Pak

The Afghan Minister for Commerce & Industry Dr. Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar discussed issues of mutual interest including implementation of the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) during meeting here on Tuesday.

By Jordan Press, Postmedia News

It took the interest of NATO's highest office to convince decision-makers in Canada to back a revised counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan, one that Canadian officials believed was the right strategy they had sought, according to a leaked diplomatic cable.

By Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post

NATO officials in Afghanistan stopped transferring detainees to Afghan custody in several provinces this week in response to a U.N. investigation that found evidence of systematic torture at some detention centers, the military command said Tuesday night.

VOA News

Norway has frozen $55 million in aid to Afghanistan until the scandal surrounding the collapse of corruption-ridden Kabul Bank is resolved.

By Peter Wong , Statesman Journal

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, back from his second trip to Afghanistan within 18 months, says he saw or heard nothing to change his mind that U.S. military forces should be headed out even quicker than President Obama announced back in June.

Gulf Today

UAE ambassador to Afghanistan Yusouf Saif Al Ali gave an insight to Richard Olson, the co-ordinating director for Development and Economic Affairs, US Embassy Kabul, Afghanistan, into the humanitarian, developmental and security mission of the UAE Force in Afghanistan.

New Kerala

The United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan have held bilateral talks, emphasising on the areas of transport and civil aviation.

The discussion was held between UAE Economy Minister Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri and Dawood Ali Al Najefi, Afghanistan's minister for transport and civil aviation.

TOLO News

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday said that the presence of Taliban in Bonn Conference depends on progress by the High Council for Peace.

Nation Pak,

President Asif Ali Zardari has underscored the need to focus on economic development and regional security saying that peace and stability in Afghanistan holds key to this end.

He was talking to a delegation comprising Ambassadors of Central Asian countries that called on him at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Tuesday.

Gulf News

The documentary Mission: Winds of Goodness is a 30-minute film on how the UAE military delivered humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, maintained security and supported social and economic development in the war-torn country.

Gulf News

The UAE people have contributed $22 million for food, medicine and basic relief projects providing housing and shelter in Afghanistan.

The UAE has had a presence in Afghanistan for eight years, and six UAE-funded medical clinics and a hospital have been built there.

By Amie Ferris-Rotman, Reuters

The Afghan government is trying to curb a booming population by promoting birth control but such efforts have been met with caution from aid groups and opposition from Islamic scholars.

Ben Farmer Kabul, SMH

AMERICA and Afghanistan are close to signing a strategic pact that would allow thousands of US troops to remain in the country until at least 2024.

Associated content

The story is rampant, making the rounds of the tabloids, that an agreement between the United States and Afghanistan will allow not only military trainers to remain in order to build up the Afghan army and police force, but also American "special forces" soldiers and air force to remain.

ITAR-TASS

Moscow and Kabul consider the possibility of the increase of oil products’ delivery to Afghanistan from Russia by 500,000 tons, Anwarul Haq Ahadi, the minister of trade and industry of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, stated on Thursday after the signing of the memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the branches of the fuel-and-energy complex between the Russian Ministry of Energy and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Trade and Industry.

TOLOnews

In an exclusive interview with TOLOnews, US Ambassador to Afghanistan said the second Bonn conference will be led by Afghans and Kabul should decide whether to exclude or include Taliban in the conference

Global security

Chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council, Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani has said that Afghan authorities had objected at the US talks with an Afghan Taliban leader without informing the Afghan government.

New Kerala

Millions of pounds of British taxpayers' money is ending up in the hands of the Taliban and corrupt Afghan officials, a report by The International Crisis Group has revealed.

The Telegraph quoted the report as saying that about ten percent of foreign aid was being paid as bribes and protection money to the Taliban and officials in Kabul.

Gadling

in an effort to boost adventure tourism, and show off its spectacular natural wonders, Afghanistan has reopened its tallest mountain to climbers after years of conflict prevented travel in the region. The country now hopes to become a popular destination for mountaineers and adventure travelers seeking new challenges and unique experiences in remote places.

By Ben Farmer in Kabul, Telegraph

The mayor of Kandahar and the head of the city's clerical council were both killed by turban bombers last month police said, in what is believed to have been the first uses of the tactic.

Pakistan Today

Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Pakistan Muhammad Omar Daudzai on Tuesday stressed the need for friendly relations between the two neighbouring countries which should be based upon mutual trust and said it could help them in combating militancy, violence and terrorism in the region.

Daily News and Analysi

Exploratory peace talks between the United States and the Taliban leadership have broken down after details of the negotiations were leaked, Western diplomats have told The Daily Telegraph.

Hard Ball Blog

The President went to Dover Air Force Base today to pay his respects to the thirty American service members killed when their helicopter was shot down this weekend in Afghanistan.

Rediff   news

The Taliban is on the run and the US forces have reversed the momentum, said a top Pentagon official on Monday, cautioning against reading too much into a single combat incident in which more than 30 US soldiers was killed in Afghanistan.

Humanitarian News and Analysis

Ongoing drought in northern, northeastern and western Afghanistan is likely to push 1.5-2 million more people into food insecurity this autumn, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

By Aunohita Mojumdar, Eurasia Net

Afghanistan’s rapidly growing population is starting to worry officials in Kabul. The demographic issue has the potential to become a significant source of instability in the coming decades.

By Michelle NicholsPosted, Reuters

The global community has failed to create a politically stable and economically viable Afghanistan despite pouring billions of dollars into the South Asian nation during a decade-long war against the Taliban, says the International Crisis Group.

Tolo News

Security transition to Afghan security forces does not mean that international community will leave Afghanistan, the US ambassador to Afghanistan said on Saturday.

By Muhammad Tahir, Xinhua

Trilateral meeting of Pakistan, United States and Afghanistan is held to discuss peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, at the Pakistani foreign ministry in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan

By Reza Sayah, CNN

Top diplomats from the U.S., Pakistan and Afghanistan claim to be gaining ground with plans to reach a peace deal with the Afghan Taliban, but revealed little about their progress.

Dvidshub

Forty-six members of the Afghan National Security Forces received diplomas, July 28, after completing training at Joint Sustainment Academy Southwest, Camp Leatherneck, Helmand province.

ANI

A delegation from the Afghanistan Information and Culture Ministry called Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Raghu Menon here today August 01.

The delegation's visit comes in the backdrop of the "Memorandum of Understanding on Information and Broadcasting sectors" signed between the two countries in May this year.

Associated Press of Pakistan

Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Monday emphasized that it is extremely important to have a blue print for the future of Afghanistan that would ensure its territorial integrity.

By John-Paul Ford Rojas, Telegraph 

Key UK British military units serving in Afghanistan could see the length of their tours doubled to 12 months, according to Britain’s commander in the Helmand war zone.

By Daily Mail Reporter

Two UK citizens arrested in Afghanistan over an alleged plot to attack British troops have been released, the Ministry of Defence confirmed last night.

By Ladonna S Davis, Global Security

The detention facility in Parwan which was designed and constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has received attention from media outlets around the world including ABC News, Armed Forces Network, The New York Times and The Washington Post for its sophisticated design and strategic alignment with the goals and objectives to provide security for Afghanistan.

(APP)

 The fourth trilateral meeting of the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan will be held in Islamabad on Tuesday (August 2)

_{By KIMBERLY DOZIER}, Monterey herald.

The White House's top adviser on Afghanistan and Pakistan said Friday that taking out three to five key al-Qaida leaders could amount to a "knockout punch" against the group.

Daily times

The US House of Representatives has voted to establish a US envoy to protect the rights of religious minorities in the Middle East and South Asia, amid rising concern over rights violations in Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan.

AP

A half a world away from the Capitol Hill deadlock, the economy and debt crisis are weighing heavily on U.S. troops in Afghanistan

World Press

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday outlined conditions governing negotiations for a future strategic partnership with the United States as he met defence chiefs at his palace

Press TV

Iran and Afghanistan have stressed the importance of joint Tehran-Kabul action to fight terrorism and extremism in the region.

tegic partnership with the United States as he met defense chiefs at his palace.

By Donna Miles, Global Security

Afghan forces’ assumption of the security lead in seven provinces and districts last week represents “a significant step toward our shared goal of seeing Afghans in the lead across the country by the end of 2014,” a NATO spokeswoman said today

Amir Shah, The Associated Press

KABUL - With foreign troops preparing to withdraw, President Hamid Karzai told Afghan soldiers and police Tuesday that they face a difficult year ahead as they take on more security responsibilities but urged them to push ahead so that Afghanistan can eventually defend itself.

Written by Charles Kennedy oil price

According to Tajik first deputy minister of energy and industry Pulod Muhiddinov, next month Tajikistan will begin exporting electricity to Afghanistan via the Sangtuda-Pol-e Khomri 220-kilovolt electricity transmission line.

Gulf Today

The Pakistani government deferred the implementation of Afghan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) for another sixty days allowing over 4,000 containers, including three hundred containing food items, to be shifted to Afghanistan.

Science Daily

After a basic package of health services was introduced by Afghanistan's Ministry of Public Health, the development and performance of Afghanistan's health care services improved dramatically in many areas between 2004 and 2008, particularly in health service capacity and delivery of care

The News

 Turkish government will be hosting summit of the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan in Ankara in November this year. 

Afghan president has also been invited in the summit conference. 

By Michelle Nichols, Reuters

"We have no interest in permanent bases in Afghanistan," said U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker shortly after he was sworn in at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, in an apparent nod to Afghanistan's powerful and wary neighbors.

By Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times

The new American ambassador to Afghanistan took the oath of office on Monday, saying in a succinct but personal speech that the United States would start to pull back from its engagement here — but only gradually.

UPI

U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan Monday readied to complete the handover of security in seven areas to Afghan security forces.

Afghanistan news

Farmers in Britain are harvesting a surprising new crop in an effort to combat a shortage of painkillers. It is a crop that is plentiful thousands of kilometers away in Afghanistan, but there, British and U.S. troops are trying to destroy it.

By Sam Stein, Huffington Post

In the end, the debt ceiling debate could come down to a simple accounting question. Should the money saved from drawing down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan count as part of a deficit reduction package

Outlook Afghanistan

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said his country remained committed to providing long-term assistance to Afghanistan. Singh held out the promise during a telephonic conversation with President Hamid Karzai, the Presidential Palace in Kabul said in a statement.

Reuters

Pakistan and Afghanistan must redouble efforts to end fighting along their border to prevent this jeopardising an improvement in relations, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Thursday.

DW World

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, on the second day of a visit to Afghanistan, has paid a visit to Bundeswehr troops. He said a timetable for Germany's withdrawal was not set in stone.

UPI

The United States is working on new ways to airlift supplies to troops in Afghanistan in case Pakistan were to shut down its supply corridor, a general said.

Pakistan Today

The United States has dramatically reduced its reliability on Pakistani supply routes to Afghanistan down to 35 percent given the volatile nature of the border areas, where a number of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) suppliers have come under attack.

By Adrian Croft, Reuters

Poppy cultivation may have fallen up to 15 percent this year in the province that produces around half of Afghanistan's opium, due to a programme of crop substitution, eradication and enforcement, an Afghan official said.

By FM Shakil, Pak Tribune

The new Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (Aptta) is going to hit customs clearing agents hard, and they are strongly opposed to the new scheme of things, despite Pakistani officials’ optimism that it will provide the country with access to over 17 routes for trade with central Asian countries

By Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in India for security and counterterrorism talks as the two countries try to broaden their relationship and manage mutual concerns about Pakistan and Afghanistan.

By Zia Khan, Pak Tribune

With US and other Nato forces racing to train enough soldiers and police to take over completely and allow all foreign combat troops to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, Pakistan’s leadership has stepped up efforts aimed at seeking a ‘regional’ solution to the unrest in war-torn Afghanistan.

Pakistan Today

President Asif Ali Zardari will arrive in Kabul today (Tuesday) for a daylong visit during which he will discuss the recent cross-border attacks from Afghanistan on Pakistan’s frontier regions, as well as the ongoing reconciliation process between Kabul and the Taliban with a focus on Islamabad’s mediatory role.

The presstv

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai have highlighted the need for cooperation to counter terrorism.

World Bank

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Finance and the World Bank today signed a $52 million grant from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) to support the government’s efforts to manage the country’s natural resources effectively and transparently.

By Brian Brady and Jonathan Owen, Independent

David Cameron is today warned not to risk the lives of British soldiers by making an early withdrawal from Afghanistan. The warning comes in a report from the influential House of Commons Defence Committee. Operations in Afghanistan states that pulling out more than a few hundred support troops could undermine the international coalition's strategy, while dangerously weakening those left behind.

By Tahir Khan, Pakistan Tribune

Governor of Afghanistan’s Kunar province, Fazalullah Waheedi, on Friday denied charges that Pakistani Taliban militants had established bases in Afghanistan and invited the Pakistan government to share information about their presence in the country’s border regions.

New Kerala

Afghan Peace Council Secretary Mohammad Masoom Stanikzai has sought India's assistance in Taliban peace process.

By Phil Stewart, Reuters

Insurgent attacks against Afghan and NATO forces in Afghanistan have started to decline on an annual basis for the first time in up to five years, defying predictions by intelligence analysts, General David Petraeus said on Saturday.

Web India123

India and the United States will be discussing NATO troop withdrawals and the transition process in Afghanistan during the second India-US Strategic Dialogue to be held in New Delhi during the third week of July, a senior U.S. State Department official said.

Dawn

Military officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to hold more high-level talks to defuse a row over a series of attacks across their porous border, the Afghan defence ministry said Saturday.

Czech Position

Defense Minister announces withdrawal of Czech helicopter battalion from Afghanistan by year’s end, with further reductions in 2012

By John Irish, Reuters

Afghanistan is building a vast rail network linking its borders to help attract investors to $3 trillion worth of mining projects, including oil deals, that will drive economic growth, its Mines Minister said on Monday.

By Kamran Yousaf, The Exoress Tribune

Pakistan and Afghanistan have decided to set up a military ‘hotline’ in an effort to ease tensions triggered by cross-border raids and mortar shelling incidents.

The move came at a meeting between Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and Afghan Ambassador Muhammad Umer Daudzai in Islamabad on Monday.

By Jonathan Owen, David Randall, Jane Merrick and Rupert Cornwell, Independent
At least 60 people died in a suicide bombing just 25 miles from Kabul yesterday. In a few days' time, a report on Afghanistan from the International Crisis Group will say that violence and the billions of dollars in international aid have brought wealthy officials and insurgents together. As a result, "the economy is increasingly dominated by a criminal oligarchy of politically connected businessmen".

By Steven Lee Myers and Mark Mazzetti, New York Times
President Obama’s strategy for gradually ending the war in Afghanistan relies heavily on peace talks with the Taliban. But those talks have hardly begun, and even some administration officials acknowledge that the odds of success are slim.

Huffington Post via AP
The farmer picking apples in the outskirts of Kabul must pay the Taliban $33 to ship out each truckload of fruit. The governor sends in armed men to chase workers off job sites if the official bribes aren't paid. Poor neighborhoods never get their U.N.-provided wheat, long since sold on the black market.

Pakistan Times' Foreign Desk Pakistan,
Iran and Afghanistan reiterating their strong commitment to reinforce their efforts to eradicate extremism, terrorism and militancy have agreed to strengthen and expand trilateral cooperation in various fields.