On the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, rediff.com showcases some rare photographs of the ship and the tragedy it suffered.
After initial skepticism, the Obama administration has finally begun to acknowledge that Hamid Karzai would be re-elected as Afghanistan's President for second consecutive term, media reports said on Monday.
Factions of the Pakistani and Iranian intelligence agencies have been supporting the Taliban and other terrorist groups to carry out attacks on the US-led international forces in Afghanistan, said a top US commander in the restive country.
At least 10 people have been killed in a more than four-hour standoff between militants and police at a luxury hotel in Kabul, according to the Afghan police.
Mullah Omar, the Taliban's elusive leader, has warned United States-led troops in Afghanistan that their 'unequivocal defeat' is imminent, as the insurgents are 'forging ahead like a powerful flood' against them. In a purported online message issued to mark Eid, Omar referred to 'huge casualties and sagging morale' among the more than 100,000 North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and US-led troops in Afghanistan fighting Taliban-linked insurgents.
The first cargo aircraft of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation carrying relief goods for survivors of the devastating floods in Pakistan on Monday arrived at the military's Chaklala air base. In response to a request by the government of Pakistan, the NATO had on Friday decided to provide airlift and sealift for the delivery of aid to Pakistan flood survivors. The NATO started to airlift nearly 500 tonnes of relief supplies from Europe to Pakistan.
American military commanders operating with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation led mission in Afghanistan have informed US President Barack Obama's special envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, that they do not have enough troops to do their job, and are being pushed past their limit by Taliban rebels who operate across borders.
Low voter turnout marked the general elections in Afghanistan on Thursday, as the war-ravaged country voted to choose their next president for the second time since 2001.
South African President Jacob Zuma has said that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is "ready" to implement an African Union plan to end the Libyan conflict. He, however, remained silent on his plans to leave Libya, something that the rebels have insisted on, prior to any settlement.
The statement by John Kirby, national security council coordinator for strategic communications at the White House, came as Putin hosted the Chinese leader.
The Libyan government on Monday said that strongman Muammar Gaddafi was "unharmed" in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's heaviest attack on his compound as his forces bombarded the besieged western city of Misurata with rockets, giving the town no respite.
Just a few days Operation Odyssey Dawn, the collective international action under United Nations authority to protect the Libyan people, has already derailed Gaddafi's bloody assault on rebel-held territories.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will arrive in Washington on Monday to hold talks with the United States administration on a host of crucial issues.Karzai has already been pulled up by Obama over the rampant corruption in the Afghanistan administration. But in a bid to pacify its important ally in the war on terror, Obama has reportedly instructed senior officials to treat Karzai with respect and stop criticising his government.
Springtime always brings in an influx of Taliban fighters to the district of Zhari, in Kandahar province of Afghanistan, where the thick cover provided by the grapevines and the orchards prevent North Atlantic Treaty Organisations's hi-tech thermal imaging cameras to see the insurgents hiding within, a report in the Guardian states.
Pakistan army does not expect the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-led inquiry into the last month's deadly air strike to be transparent and did not see any tangible result coming out of the probe that it had refused to be part of.
Observing that the future of Afghanistan has a regional dimension, the Obama Administration has hoped that Iran would play a constructive role in bringing long-term peace and stability in the war-torn country.
United States President Barack Obama has appointed Bruce Riedel, a veteran Central Investigative Agency analyst for nearly three decades, to chair an inter-agency policy review of US policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan.Obama's press spokesman Robert Gibbs said that this policy review chaired by Riedel would have to be completed before the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in April.
Pakistan has offered to play a central role in resolving the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and hold talks with the Taliban. Pakistan's proposal is likely to be discussed when National Security Adviser General James L Jones visits Islamabad later this week, says the report. United States has reacted cautiously to Pakistan's renewed interest in seeking dialogue with the Taliban.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi stated this after a meeting with visiting NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who sought deepening cooperation and developing political dialogue between Pakistan and the European military alliance to achieve common strategic objectives. Any 'activation on the eastern border' would affect Pakistan's involvement in the war on terror, Qureshi told a joint press conference after their talks.
Images that should keep you grinning for days on end.
David Petraeus, considered to be one of the best war-time generals and who till recently was commander of US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan, was on Tuesday sworn in as the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency.
About 100 vehicles destined for the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan were set ablaze on Monday by heavily armed pro-Taliban militants in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, in the second such attack in as many days.
In understanding Obama's strategy, we must begin with an obvious but unstated point: The extra forces that will be deployed to Afghanistan are not expected to defeat the Taliban. Instead, their mission is to reverse the momentum of previous years and to create the circumstances under which an Afghan force can take over the mission.
Supporting United States General McChrystal's plan to send additional troops to Afghanistan, a former American general on Wednesday told the US lawmakers that there should be no Afghan 'exit strategy' till the Al Qaeda leadership currently based in Pakistan is eliminated.
At least six people were killed and 27 tankers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation were set on fire during an attack by suspected militants on an oil depot close to Islamabad. According to the BBC, dozens of tankers were being filled with fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan when the attack took place on Monday morning."Between 10 to 12 men armed with automatic weapons stormed the depot from two sides. They opened indiscriminate fire on the tankers," said an official.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has announced plans for a large-scale airlift of relief supplies from Europe for the survivors of the devastating floods in Pakistan, as donors pledged more assistance after a slow start of aid efforts.
A top United States General has said Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is probably hiding in the remote mountainous regions of Pakistan, even though no one known where he actually is.
The Taliban has intensified the war strategies for its forces as evident from the latest directive issued by its leader Mullah Omar.
The committee noted that Indian export market was at present confined to neighbouring nations like Nepal, Myanmar\nand Maldives, besides catering to the replenishment market.
At least seven people were killed and over 90 injured in a suicide car bomb blast outside the NATO headquarters in Kabul on Saturday. The presidential palace and several embassies are also located in the area. The blast comes just five days before presidential elections and against a backdrop of increased violence by the Taliban. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, saying people would not be deterred from voting.
Pakistan will attack al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden the moment it has reliable intelligence information about his whereabouts, Pakistan's envoy to the United States Hussain Haqqani said on Friday.Haqqani also said he was confident that Pakistan could help foil any al Qaeda plans to attack the United States, although he did not know of any right now. The envoy is pressing for more cooperation with the United States on intelligence.
The man at the centre of the storm, Newsweek magazine, reported was Mullah Gul Agha Akhund, who is an in-law and long time confident of Mullah Omar. Akhund is brandishing a handwritten letter from Mullah Omar to claim to be the new second-in-command of the Afghan Taliban. But, his claim is being hotly contested by top military commanders of the outfit.
A suicide car bomb attack near a hospital and army recruitment centre killed at least 20 civilians in Kabul on Tuesday morning, and injured scores of others.According to reports, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's troops were the target of the attack that took place during rush hour in the western part of the Afghan capital. A NATO convoy was passing the area at the time of the attack, said reports.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
And for any solution to work, Pakistan could not be excluded, the writer Tahir Ali said, not least because a great many Pashtuns, who live within Pakistan but don't recognise the Afghan-Pakistan border, would be up in arms. The Pakistan military would be a key player in any decision taken on Afghanistan -- along with Iran, Russia and China.
Amidst a war of words between the two countries, the US came out in defence of Afghan President Hamid Karzai calling him a valuable partner and said American officials need to be sensitive while making comments on the war-torn country. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said General Stanley McChrystal, who is the head of US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-led troops in Afghanistan, had excellent relations with the Afghan President.
Pakistan poses a 'bigger' security challenge than Afghanistan for the United States and the rest of the world, a top American diplomat has said. Christopher Dell, who currently runs the US embassy in Kabul, said Pakistani Taliban groups had formed a common front to attack North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops in Afghanistan. "Pakistan is a bigger place, has a larger population, it's nuclear-armed. It has certainly made radical Islam a part of its political life," he said.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has admitted that the killing of eight schoolboys in a night-time raid in eastern Afghanistan was carried out on the basis of faulty intelligence. "Knowing what we know now, it would probably not have been a justifiable attack. We don't now believe that we busted a major ring," The Times quoted NATO sources as saying.Ten children and teenagers died when troops stormed a remote mountain compound near the border with Pakistan in December.
The US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces are all set to roll out an "intensive 18-month" ground campaign in Afghanistan to stamp out Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, top US generals have said warning the insurgents that Marjah offensive was just the start.
Two policemen were killed and seven other security personnel, including two officials of an intelligence agency, were injured in a crackdown on Taliban militants in Karachi that resulted in the arrest of over 79 suspects. The crackdown followed media reports over the past few months about the steady inroads made into Karachi by the Taliban. The militants had recently warned transporters in the city not to ferry supplies for troops from United States and NATO.
The G-20's new-found importance should be used to challenge North Atlantic hegemony.
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