Sixty per cent Americans say that the war in Afghanistan has not been not worth fighting and just 30 per cent believe that the Afghan public supports the US mission in their country -- marking the sour state of attitudes on the war even before the shooting rampage allegedly by a US soldier this weekend.
Trump said he had a "productive discussion" with Turnbull on a wide range of issues in New York.
The United States has ruled out any change in its Afghanistan strategy in view of the recent violence in the restive country, particularly the killing of American servicemen after the burning of Qurans at a military base.
Senior American and Pakistani defence and military officials met in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Monday to discuss the regional security environment and the situation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent says a series of drone attacks have killed nearly 50 of its members, including deputy head Ustad Ahmad Farooq and Qari Imran, the group's central council member and in charge of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
India has demanded the United Nations to slap sanctions against the new Taliban leader in Afghanistan, saying it is "sheer folly" that the leader of a proscribed entity is not yet designated as a terrorist individual.
'Pakistan may have moved back from this devilish plot in 2007, but there is no guarantee it won't be on the drawing boards again,' warns Rajeev Sharma.
Here are the images that encapsulated the biggest moments in the month of August.
A senior US diplomat involved in Afghanistan has become the first American official to resign in protest over the eight-year war, saying it was fuelling the insurgency in the war-torn country.
The United States on Thursday said it plans to shift to "support role" in Afghanistan by 2013 so as to complete the security transition to Afghan forces by 2014 even as it sought to play down President Hamid Karzai's order to pull out American troops from villages and confine them to bases.
Haley also said there was a plan for her to travel to India by the end of this year.
'The fatal mistake for the USSR was the invasion of Afghanistan.' 'Quite possibly the fatal mistake for the Chinese empire is the assault on Ladakh,' observes Rajeev Srinivasan.
China said Islamabad is at the frontline of combating terrorism.
In a clear reference to Pakistan, he also sought diplomatic isolation and blacklisting by anti-terror watchdog FATF of countries sponsoring terrorism, asserting that there is a need to take the bull by its horns and strike at the root cause of terror.
'Some Pakistani generals are saying -- a little more so now than before -- that the biggest threat to Pakistan is not external -- not India -- but internal.' 'The proof of that will be their change of policies and that is going to be the challenge,' Rakesh Sood, one of India's most distinguished diplomats, tells Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com in Washington, DC.
In his first of the two election speeches on the eve of the November 3 elections, Biden asserted that he has a plan to successfully fight against COVD-19 if voted to power.
The mission that left 30 American soldiers, including 22 Navy Seals, dead on Saturday morning in eastern Afghanistan was just one of the dozens of operations carried out by United States Special Operations Forces every week in Afghanistan.
The US administration will take the final call in a meeting in coming weeks.
The crash late Friday represents the biggest death toll in a single incident for international forces in Afghanistan since the start of the war in 2001
The Republican White House contender took the time to pat himself on the back for 'being right on radical Islamic terrorism' and sought the resignation of US President Barack Obama.
Notwithstanding how the current impasse is solved, at some point in the future, Russia will realise that just as centuries ago it developed the paradigm of securing its heartland's safety through annexing vast buffer zones between itself and the enemy, a more modern security is possible only through friendly relations and sustainable peace, observes Shyam G Menon.
Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar has left for the US on his maiden visit to hold talks with top American officials on regional security, counter terrorism and intelligence issues.
United States President Barack Obama on Wednesday said that the US has succeeded in its mission in Afghanistan by "severely" crippling the Al Qaeda there and vowed to keep pressure on the terror group until that network is entirely defeated.
Alleging that Pakistan has for decades leveraged radical terrorist groups to carry out attacks in India and Afghanistan, a US lawmaker has introduced a bill that proposes to deduct $50 million (Rs 2,681 crore) from the US aid to Islamabad every time an American is killed "as a result of actions of ISI."
The Devyani Khobragade row, India-Pakistan bickering over Afghanistan and a nightclub act by two diplomats were some of the issues discussed at one of the sessions at Jaipur Lit Fest, reports Sanchari Bhattacharya.
'The best thing that Modi can hope for in this visit is that he is able to mobilise Indians in America to vote Republican and try and help Trump return to power,' argues Aakar Patel.
Army Chief General V K Singh began his official visit to the US during which terrorism, situation in the region including Afghanistan and Pakistan, besides bilateral military-to-military ties would top the agenda of his talks with top American military leadership.
The United States is not taking at face value Pakistan's actions against terrorists outfits.
The Looming Tower reveals the bitter CIA-FBI turf battles that led to the worst terrorist attack in America's history.
Pakistani forces were "unusually accurate" as they fired shots on an Afghan-United States patrol on November 26, an American officer stationed in Afghanistan has said, providing new details about the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation attack that could put fresh strains on the already tattered US-Pak relations.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation attack that killed 24 Pakistani troops has widened the US-Pak rift, according to a leading American daily, which said the Obama administration's regret and Islamabad's anger over the strike reflects a "deepening distrust" that gets harder to repair with each new confrontation.
Through the past 18-month period, peace has prevailed in the disputed border regions, which was immensely helpful in the difficult situation that the country was passing through, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The man, dressed in an Afghan border police uniform, opened fire on Isaf troops during the training mission, killing the soldiers in Taliban-infested eastern Afghanistan, Nato announced. The gunman was identified as Azat Gul.
While India is terming the visit of American President Barack Obama as a very successful trip that will give a shape to the Indo-US strategic partnership, Pakistan is worried especially after Obama endorsed India's role in Afghanistan and India's right to a permanent seat in the Security Council.
In a move that could have determining effect on the 'war on terror' in Afghanistan, the new American military commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus has suggested putting the dreaded Haqqani group in the list of banned terror groups.
Kate Winslet won her second Emmy for playing the role of Detective Mare Sheehan in Mare Of Easttown.
A top American military commander headed for Afghanistan on Tuesday said he would not be surprised by links between Pakistan's spy agency Inter State Intelligence and Islamist extremist organisations, who have established a safe haven in Pakistan's restive tribal region.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence is pushing the Taliban to attack American troops and their allies based in Afghanistan, the media here has said, close on the heels of a White House report that slammed Islamabad for not doing enough to battle terrorists holed up near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
American combat troops could stay in war-torn Afghanistan beyond the 2014 deadline set by United States President Barack Obama for their pullout if Kabul sought delaying their withdrawal, the US ambassador has said.
'Steve was the foremost strategic analyst on South Asia,' remembers Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
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