PAKISTAN: Border Villages Rise Up Against Taliban

"We are trend-setters. Others are following us," boasts Rauf Khan, mayor of Pakistan’s Buner district, where villagers killed six militants in the Dara Shalbandi area on Aug. 14.

POLITICS-US: A Really Bad Couple of Weeks for Pax Americana

Whatever hopes the George W. Bush administration may have had for using its post-9/11 "war on terror'' to impose a new Pax Americana on Eurasia, and particularly in the unruly areas between the Caucasus and the Khyber Pass, appear to have gone up in flames - in some cases, literally - over the past two weeks.

US/PAKISTAN: Taliban Tests Fragile Coalition Gov’t

When Pakistani president and former military dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf stepped down on Monday, it marked the official end of the flawed Pakistan policy of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.

SOUTH ASIA: Musharraf's Exit Leaves India Confused

India's Pakistan policy is in disarray following the resignation of Pervez Musharraf as president, to avoid impeachment, after almost nine years of authoritarian rule.

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban Fill Power Void in Kabul?

The ambush that killed 10 NATO soldiers outside of Kabul on Tuesday, the worst battlefield loss for western forces since the war began, was the capstone in a week of high-profile insurgent activities in Afghanistan.

US/PAKISTAN: Mystery Behind Aafia Siddiqi’s ‘Arrest’ Deepens

‘’For you it’s just another story. If you want the truth go to Ghazni where you will get more than I can ever tell you about my sister," said a distraught Fouzia Siddiqi, speaking with IPS, in a voice breaking with helpless desperation.

POLITICS: Bush Covered up Musharraf Ties with Qaeda, Khan

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's resignation Monday brings to an end an extraordinarily close relationship between Musharraf and the George W. Bush administration, in which Musharraf was lavished with political and economic benefits from the United States despite policies that were in sharp conflict with U.S. security interests.

PAKISTAN: Musharraf Quits, Avoids Impeachment

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf resigned from office on Monday ending weeks of speculation over whether he would quit or face impeachment on charges of illegally seizing power by a parliament elected in February and dominated by political parties opposed to him.

PAKISTAN: Experts Warn of Unrest Over Food Prices

For Mohammed Bashir, a restaurant chef, it was galling to have to be standing in line at a langar (soup kitchen) waiting to be served a free meal. Bashir lost his job four months ago when he injured a finger in a traffic accident.

PAKISTAN: Civilians Flee Fresh Fighting in Tribal Area

"We have been staying in this camp for two days. My daughter is still in Loi Sam which we left due to heavy shelling by the army," says Gul Pari, who fled the fighting in volatile Bajaur Agency, a tribal area on Pakistan’s northern border.

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.

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.

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.

DEATH PENALTY-PAKISTAN: Reprieve Call Could Save Thousands

Some 7,000 death row inmates - a quarter of the estimated condemned prisoners worldwide - are expected to be spared and eventually freed following a call by Pakistan’s prime minister to honour the memory of the assassinated political leader Benazir Bhutto.