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.
The Taliban has intensified the war strategies for its forces as evident from the latest directive issued by its leader Mullah Omar.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The G-20's new-found importance should be used to challenge North Atlantic hegemony.
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.
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.
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.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, hours before arriving in New Delhi, was circumspect when asked if US intelligence had warned India that a deadly terror attack in Mumbai is likely, as reported by the media, which is quoting unnamed counter-terrorism officials.Rice said that "We've been through that in the United States. It's a tough business, particularly, for a democracy, and so I have to tell you, I have a lot of empathy for what they're going through."
Elizabeth Gladys Dean, the last remaining survivor of the Titanic ship-wreck has died, nearly 100 years after she was rescued, at 9 weeks of age, from the doomed ocean liner's deck.
The US government has urged Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to stop a secret Iran-Taliban pact against North Atlantic Treaty Organistion troops in Afghanistan.
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.
'US forces have killed Mullah Dadullah Akhund, a member of the 12-member shura of the Neo Taliban.'
He, however, said that India and Pakistan are proceeding with the composite dialogue process, which has led to reduction of tensions and resulted in several Confidence Building Measures.
Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee began a round of discussions with world leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.
Pompeo, during a Congressional hearing on Thursday, told the members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that 'the actions are entirely consistent with what they have been signalling to the world for decades you might even argue since 1989, but certainly since General Secretary Xi came to power'.
As prices go up and airlines go under, can you still afford to travel well? Here are three tips and six 'secret' routes by Peter Greenberg.
"The clean-up operations are continuing," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Pakistan has claimed that its policy of nuclear deterrence with India was working, but its atomic weapons were not meant for first use.
"Foreign troops should at once leave Afghanistan, and then the institutions they created should be dismantled. Unless this happens, war will heat up further. It will not recede," the one-eyed Omar said.
The story of Iceland is the story of life, notes Payal Singh Mohanka after a recent journey to that fascinating land.
Six United States Army CH-47 Chinook cargo helicopters are expected to arrive in Pakistan over the next several days, bringing the US helicopter fleet there to 18 aircraft.
In his first bilateral meeting with international leaders after assuming charge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held talks with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
Japan will consider sending former world chess champion Bobby Fischer to Iceland once it confirms that he has been granted citizenship there.
The designation means that Pakistan will join an exclusive club of nations that are given preferential treatment by the US in areas of foreign aid and defence cooperation.
