AFGHANISTAN: Security Fears Paralyse Kabul

It used to take Esmazari 15 minutes to cross town in his faded mustard Corolla. But the police shutdown of nearly half of Kabul's major arteries, in response to a spate of suicide bombings that ripped across the capital city in recent months, means that today Esmazari's taxi spends a full hour to make the same trip.

HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Polio Campaign Stops As Violence Spreads

The polio eradication campaign has ground to a halt in the Swat Valley, in northern Pakistan, with the breakdown of a peace agreement with a hardline militant group.

POLITICS-US: Faith in a Time of War

From Republican contender John McCain's Jul. 25 meeting with the Dalai Lama in Aspen, Colorado to Democratic candidate Barack Obama's visit to Jerusalem's Western Wall the same day, the intersection of religion, politics and the "war on terror" has been a recurrent theme in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

POLITICS-US: Gates Strategy Stresses Unconventional Warfare

U.S. defence strategy should be focused primarily in the short to medium term on unconventional threats, particularly "violent extremist movements such as al Qaeda and its associates", while it "hedge(s)" against the growing military power of "rogue states such as Iran and North Korea" and potential rivals, notably China and Russia, according to major policy guidance released here Thursday by Pentagon chief Robert Gates.

PAKISTAN/US: Gilani Can Expect Grilling Over Spy Agency’s Role

By attempting to place Pakistan's shadowy Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) under civilian control, ahead of a trip to the United States, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has revealed eagerness to deflect mounting criticism over the agency’s role in the failing 'war on terror' in neighbouring Afghanistan.

PAKISTAN: Frontier Gov’t Blames Militancy On Intelligence Agencies

Pakistan’s ruling Awami National Party (ANP) has been pushing a peace agenda for the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), but militancy in the region bordering Afghanistan shows no signs of abating.

POLITICS: Gilani May Be Pincushion for U.S. Frustration

When Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani begins his first official visit here at the White House Monday, the welcome is likely to be a little warmer than he might wish.

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban Encroach On Karzai’s Turf

Dozens of civilians were killed over the weekend in Afghanistan, the latest in the trend of spiralling violence that has engulfed the embattled nation. The civilian casualties, Taliban attacks and troop casualty numbers are putting increasing strain on the Western-led coalition, leading some to speculate that the war is unwinnable.

PAKISTAN: Taliban Move In On Peshawar?

Hundreds of families have left posh Hayatabad Township amid escalating fear that this Pakistani border city is set to fall into the hands of the Taliban.

PAKISTAN: Schoolgirls Lured To Suicide Bombing

"I was able to save my daughter from becoming a suicide bomber. She had been lured by her teacher at the religious school," said Jamilur Rehman, a Pakistani schoolteacher, whose 13-year-old daughter was taken away by a Taliban group to be trained as a suicide bomber in North Waziristan, a lawless border area.

POLITICS-US: Obama Takes Offensive in Foreign Policy Speech

Setting the stage for his upcoming trips to Europe, the Middle East, and Afghanistan, Sen. Barack Obama Wednesday strongly denounced the Iraq War and re-affirmed his intention to withdraw U.S. combat troops from there by mid-2010 if he is elected president in November.

US/AFGHANISTAN: Deadly Assault Could Alter Campaign Dynamics

If nothing else, the deaths Sunday of nine U.S. soldiers at a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan close to the Pakistan border are likely to bring home to the U.S. electorate what top national security officials have been saying for much of the past year - that the central front in Washington's "global war on terrorism" has moved eastwards about 1,800 kms from Iraq.

PAKISTAN: Two Journalists Kidnapped on Restive Border

The abduction Friday of two Pakistani journalists representing the New York Times (NYT) in troubled Mohmand Agency by pro-Taliban fighters has put the spotlight on a spate of kidnappings for ransom that has swept the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) bordering Afghanistan.

POLITICS-US: Vets Mull Wins and Losses in Benefits Fight

You could hear the joy in Patrick Campbell's voice as he reflected on U.S. President George W. Bush's signing Monday of a new GI Bill of Rights for veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

/UPDATE*/POLITICS-US: Afghanistan Moves Back into the Limelight

Six and a half years after the ouster of the Taliban, U.S. media attention is returning to Afghanistan where more U.S. and NATO troops were killed in June than in any previous month.

RIGHTS-US: Anti-Torture Campaign Wins Influential Backers

On the eve of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, a bipartisan group of some 200 religious leaders and former top U.S. national security and military officers launched a campaign for a presidential order to outlaw torture and cruel and inhumane treatment of all detainees.

AFGHANISTAN: Karzai’s Threat Of War Triggers Outrage in Pakistan

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s threat to send troops across the border to crush pro-Taliban forces, which sparked angry protests in Pakistan’s border areas this week, has led to calls for restraint from moderate politicians in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

US/PAKISTAN: Soldiers’ Killings Likely to Raise Tensions

The killings Tuesday night by U.S. warplanes of 11 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers at or near a checkpoint along the Afghan border is virtually certain to add to growing tensions between Washington and Islamabad at a critical moment in relations between both countries.

PAKISTAN: School Bombings Force Girls to Drop Out

"I am disappointed about quitting school, but my parents want me to stay at home," says Sumaira Begum, a student of class 8 at the Government High School Mardan in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP). "On Mar. 20, my school was bombed after which nearly 100 girls including I stopped attending."

PAKISTAN: Abductions For Ransom Blamed on Taliban

A spate of kidnappings in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and areas adjoining Afghanistan are being blamed on Taliban militia.

POLITICS-CANADA: Few Mourn Fallen Foreign Minister

Canada's gaffe-prone foreign affairs minister, Maxime Bernier, resigned suddenly this week after revelations that he left sensitive and confidential government documents at the home of his ex-girlfriend, Julie Couillard.