U.S.-9/11: Poll Finds Waning Faith in Military Interventions

Five years after "9/11", the U.S. public is considerably less enthusiastic about projecting military power abroad, according to a major new survey, the first of a spate of polls that are likely to released in the run-up to Monday's fifth anniversary of the attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

AFGHANISTAN: ‘Taliban Taking Over’

The Taliban have regained control over the southern half of Afghanistan and their frontline is advancing daily, a group closely monitoring the Afghan situation said in a report Tuesday.

MEDIA-9/11: Remembering the Journalists

"If there's only one sight I'll remember from the destruction of the World Trade Centre, it is the flight of desperation - the headlong leap from the top-most floors by those who chose a different death than the choking smoke and flame," wrote John Bussey of The Wall Street Journal on Sep. 11, 2001.

AFGHANISTAN: Pakistani Strife, Blow to Central Asian Gas Project

Ambitious plans to revive the Trans-Afghan Pipeline (TAP) plan could be wrecked by an upsurge of anti-government violence in neighbouring Pakistan where this week thousands of people have joined supporters of a tribal leader to protest his killing by the military.

AFGHANISTAN: Can NATO Win Against Taliban Insurgents?

Two weeks ago, NATO took over command of insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan from the United States, and the top general warned that he will "strike ruthlessly" against Taliban rebels when necessary.

HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Drive Against Polio Hit by Rumours, Litigation

The reliability and safety of oral polio vaccine (OPV) has been put under scrutiny in Pakistan after wild rumours that it causes impotency snowballed into a writ petition in a high court.

MEDIA-PAKISTAN: Taliban Wins Hearts and Minds With Gory Videos

The terror and agony on the faces of the two men, chained to the rear of a moving vehicle and dragged over a rough, unpaved road, are vivid. Relief comes in the shape of a dagger that slits their throats, to shouted cries of Allah-o-Akbar (God is great) in the background.

AFGHANISTAN: Drought, Poppy Profits Cause Wheat Shortage

Millions of Afghans are facing hunger because of a food shortage that the government and aid agencies say is because of a prolonged dry spell in the country.

PAKISTAN: Fatwa Bans Women Working With NGOs

Negative publicity and attacks by Islamist groups on non- governmental organizations (NGOs) working with women have forced several to close their offices and move staff out of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

EDUCATION-AFGHANISTAN: Schools Shut Down on Taliban Orders

Lack of infrastructure and lawlessness have forced thousands of children out of schools in Afghanistan this year, according to news reports.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Journalists Release Guantanamo Bay Report

Two Afghan journalists, who spent three years in the infamous United States military prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have released a new chronicle on life in the now famous iron cages.

AFGHANISTAN: Peace Offensive Must Follow Military Campaign

The regrouping of hundreds of Taliban in village after village in the trouble-prone southern provinces seems to coincide with the poppy harvest calendar in Afghanistan.

FINANCE-US: Cost of Terror War Hits 430 Billion

Washington's self-styled "global war on terror" has cost the country at least 430 billion dollars over the past five years in military and diplomatic efforts, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the watchdog arm of the U.S. Congress.

POLITICS-US: Senate Seizes on Detainee Issue to Rein in Bush

The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that President George W. Bush does not have the authority to try suspected terrorist detainees without statutory approval - and must adhere to the Geneva Conventions' prohibitions against torture - has opened a widening chasm among members of the president's own party.

ITALY: Govt Divided Over Presence in Afghanistan

The new centre-left government is facing divisions within its ranks over renewed funding for NATO-led military operations in Afghanistan.

SOUTH ASIA: Blasts Impact Indo-Pakistan Peace Process

The series of eight bomb blasts that killed close to 200 train commuters in the western port city of Mumbai, on Tuesday, has impacted a peace process between India and Pakistan.

RIGHTS-US: Pentagon Switch on Geneva Elicits Hope, Scepticism

Tuesday's announcement by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush that detainees held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere will be treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions has provoked both hope and scepticism from human rights activists.

AFGHANISTAN: Girls’ Schools Under Siege

Despite popular support for girls' education, attacks by a resurgent Taliban and other groups in southern and southeastern Afghanistan are forcing the closure of schools throughout the region and beyond, according to a new report released Monday by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

POLITICS-US: Requiem for Bush’s Unipolar Dream?

A week before the Group of Eight (G8) summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, U.S. President George W. Bush finds his power and authority - both at home and abroad - at their lowest ebb.

PAKISTAN: Reporter’s Death Rouses Calls for Media Freedom

Three weeks after Hayatullah Khan Dawar's body was found, handcuffed and shot, his apparent death in custody has become a rallying call for those demanding an end to attacks on journalists in Pakistan's sensitive tribal areas along the Afghanistan border.

RIGHTS: Pentagon Resists Ban on “Degrading Treatment”

As new reports detail further abuse by the U.S. military of its prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, a behind-the-scenes battle is being fought between the U.S. departments of state and defence about whether a key section of the Geneva Conventions should be included in new rules governing Army interrogation techniques.