RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Reporting the Truth Can Be Fatal

''I just reported the truth,'' says 38-year-old Dilawar Wazir Khan wearily, explaining to IPS over the telephone why he was kidnapped and tortured.

AFGHANISTAN: Wage Hike as Anti-Corruption Move

The Hamid Karzai government has decided to raise the salaries of government employees in an attempt to rein in widespread corruption in Afghanistan.

DISARMAMENT: The Silent Killers in the World’s War Zones

When mortars and rockets fall silent in the world's battle zones, the killings do not necessarily end with ceasefires and peace talks.

AFGHANISTAN: NATO Strikes – Parliament to Probe Civilian Deaths

As concern mounts about increasing civilian casualties in bloody battles between coalition troops and Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, a team of parliamentarians is preparing for an on-the-spot probe of non-combatant deaths in Panjwayi district.

AFGHANISTAN: Free Abducted Italian Journalist – Taliban Call

An Italian freelance photojournalist kidnapped in southern Afghanistan by unidentified gunmen should be immediately released, a Taliban spokesman said on Tuesday.

AFGHANISTAN: Hope Loses Out to Fear on Kabul Streets

Anxiety has replaced the hope of a new beginning in Afghanistan's turbulent history two years after Hamid Karzai was made president of the war-torn country with the support of a U.S.-led coalition.

POLITICS: Musharraf’s Memoir Sets Cats Among Pigeons

By launching his memoir amidst a two week-long high-powered publicity blitz across three continents, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has set a cat, or rather several cats, among the pigeons.

POLITICS-US: War on Terror Returning to Its Cradle

Five years after the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was putting the final touches on a brilliant campaign plan to oust the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies from power, Afghanistan is back in the headlines here, and the news isn't good.

PAKISTAN: Taliban Back in Business in Border Areas

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's controversial peace deal with Pakistan-based Taliban has already resulted in a new assertiveness by the ‘Islamic Scholars' in the Waziristan agency which borders Afghanistan.

AFGHANISTAN: Casualties Raise New Doubts in Italy

Italian politics is once again torn by bitter controversies over military presence in Afghanistan after 31-year-old Italian soldier Giorgio Langella was killed and another five were injured Sep. 26 near Kabul.

POLITICS-US: I’m a Veteran, and I Support/Despise This War

The 2006 U.S. Congressional elections are heating up, along with a proliferation of television ads featuring U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

POLITICS-US: Iraq, Overstretched Army Bring Bush New Grief

With the U.S. intelligence community agreed that the invasion and occupation of Iraq have made this country less safe from terrorist threats, President George W. Bush appears now to be facing a growing revolt among top military commanders who say U.S. ground forces are stretched close to the breaking point.

AFGHANISTAN: Military Policy ‘Barking Mad’

There have been critics enough of the U.S.-led military actions under way in Afghanistan, but now military commanders too have begun to question just what they are doing in Afghanistan.

AFGHANISTAN: Fighting Unlikely to Stop For Ramadan

Pitched battles on the ground were reported daily in Afghanistan just a week before the start of Ramadan, a month of fasting and prayer for observing Muslims.

POLITICS: Donors Warned Against “Cheap” Development

International donors and especially powerful multilateral financial institutions like the World Bank have failed to reduce the number of so-called "fragile states", leaving more countries vulnerable to chaos, conflict, disease epidemics and even to becoming breeding grounds for terrorism, the World Bank's own auditing body said Thursday.

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Suicide Bomber Cult Alive and Well

One morning in late August, a group of about 15 men from the Hizbul Mujahideen jihadist group walked into Lal Faqir's home to congratulate him for the 'martyrdom' of his son Bahar Ali who, they said, had died after ramming an explosives-laden car into a NATO vehicle in Afghanistan.

AFGHANISTAN: Coalition Marches Into a Tight Corner

The coalition forces in Afghanistan could find it easier to fly in than fly out of what is emerging as another trap for them.

AFGHANISTAN: Bumper Harvest Skews Anti-Drugs Policy

The biggest challenge facing the government of President Hamid Karzai is a criminalised, drugs-dominated political economy that is militating against any attempt to improve security and consolidate the rule of law in Afghanistan.

U.S.-9/11: Five Years In, Bush Is Losing Terror War

To consider whether U.S. President George W. Bush is winning his "global war on terror" (GWOT) five years after al Qaeda's devastating 9/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, one has only to look at the news of the past few days.

CANADA/AFGHANISTAN-9/11: An Increasingly Muddy Mission

One of the lasting legacies of the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks on Canada's southern neighbour is the involvement of 2,300 Canadian troops as part of a NATO contingent in Afghanistan.

ASIA-9/11: GWOT Leaves Region in Turmoil

Five years after U.S. President George W. Bush launched his "global war on terrorism" (GWOT), the world has become more unsafe, more divided, more strife-prone, more paranoid, and ironically, more vulnerable to terrorism.