AFGHANISTAN: On the Road to Becoming a Narco State

Although fully backed by U.S. military might and support from other Western powers, the government in Kabul has failed to change Afghanistan's status as the world's leading illicit producer of opium, according to U.N. experts who monitor the worldwide trade in narcotic drugs.

IRAN: Blaming the West for Sunni Unrest

As a Shia majority country with several large ethnic groups like the Kurds, Arabs and Baluchis that follow the Sunni faith, Iran has for years been vulnerable to unrest, riots and terrorist attacks that officials routinely attribute to foreign powers.

CANADA: Peace Scholars See Shrinking Space for Dissent

Can Canadians have a fair debate on their military mission in southern Afghanistan when so many of the sources quoted in the domestic press are bankrolled by the Department of National Defence (DND)?

AFGHANISTAN: ‘Mines Help Pakistani Claims on Disputed Border’

Afghanistan's long and rugged frontier with Pakistan is being mined and fenced by Islamabad in response to mounting criticism from Kabul and its Western allies that Islamabad is not doing enough to stop the resurgent Taliban and al-Qaeda from crossing the porous border.

AFGHANISTAN: More Funds for Development, Less for Security

In the lead up to an anticipated Taliban spring offensive against the Afghanistan government, international assistance to the war-torn country has increased.

HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Porous Afghan Border Thwarts Anti-Polio Drive

Pakistan has intensified efforts to eradicate the polio virus with a new vaccination drive that targets 12 high-risk districts in southern Sindh province where three new cases were reported recently, bringing the total number of polio incidents countrywide to four since the start of the year.

MIDDLE EAST: Shia-Sunni Violence Spreads in Iran

A week after alleged Sunni militants blew up a vehicle transporting members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), killing 11 and injuring 18, sectarian tension is reported prevailing in the predominantly Sunni southeast that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan.

POLITICS-US: National Security Experts Grim on Terror War

A new survey of more than 100 U.S. foreign policy experts - both Republicans and Democrats, as well as retired military and intelligence professionals - has found deep pessimism over the "global war on terror" and even deeper pessimism over the war in Iraq.

U.S.: Proposed ’08 Pentagon Earns Superlatives All Around

How big is President George W. Bush's proposed 2008 Pentagon budget?

POLITICS-US: One CEO’s Dissent from War on Terror

Meet Richard Wade Vague. Tall, friendly, dressed in a dark, finely tailored suit, with a firm, confident handshake and a ready, if surprisingly modest, smile, he looks like the quintessential successful 51-year-old self-described "conservative" corporate executive that he is.

AFGHANISTAN/US: Washington Ups the Ante

Despite growing domestic opposition to his plans for escalating U.S. military intervention in Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush is calling for a sharp increase in Washington's economic and military commitment to Afghanistan.

AFGHANISTAN: Most Italians Want to Quit

Fifty-six percent of Italians want Italian soldiers to leave Afghanistan, according to an opinion poll commissioned by the daily news online La Repubblica.

SOUTH ASIA: India Abandons the Raj Approach to Neighbours

India is fashioning a major shift in its relations with its smaller neighbours Bhutan and Nepal by revising bilateral treaties which embody asymmetry, inequality and imbalance.

PAKISTAN: By-election Test for Musharraf’s Afghan Policy

A parliamentary by-election in the Bajaur agency, scheduled for Wednesday, is turning out to be a test for Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s policy in the tribal areas that border Afghanistan and subjected to missile attacks by the United States military for harbouring al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: From Stockholm to Kandahar

As Canada's military looks to expand the size of its force, upgrade its equipment and increase its budget in the coming years, critics of the Canadian Armed Forces are worried that such moves would compromise the nation's traditional role as a peacekeeper and erode Ottawa's international stature as a middle power interested in promoting peace.

AFGHANISTAN: Frustration Mounts With Pace of Rebuilding

Five years after the ouster of the Taliban, Afghans remain broadly supportive of their government and the western forces that protect it, but that support appears to be slipping due primarily to frustration with the pace of reconstruction, according to a new survey released here this week.

PAKISTAN: ‘Gitmo Is Like Being Alive in Your Own Grave’

''Guantanamo brings images of a man in orange overalls, his face down and a soldier holding him by the neck, like a dog on a leash," says 14-year-old Zahra Paracha. "Animals are treated better,'' she tells IPS.

MEDIA-AFGHANISTAN: Speaking Up Against Domestic Violence

In Afghanistan's pervasive culture of violence, women and girls are powerless to resist being traded to settle family disputes and debts; rape and abduction; and forced marriages. Violence is widely tolerated by the community.

AFGHANISTAN: ‘Moderates, Not Military, May Win War on Terror’

NATO's struggle to defeat a rising insurgency in south and south-east Afghanistan along with its failure to secure additional troops at its summit in Riga are being promoted by many foreign policy experts as a failure for the grouping and a victory for the Taliban and other Islamic extremists.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: ‘War on Terror’ an Excuse for Disappearances

"A taste of their own medicine would be the best punishment for these people," says Mohammad Atif, 23, when asked how agents of the state who kidnapped and detained him for two years should be punished. "The only problem is no one can touch these people."

AFGHANISTAN: NATO Mission Sees Death Toll Zoom This Year

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's surprising claim that NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) troops are "winning" the military mission against the Taliban has to be verified on the ground in Afghanistan.