A Fork in the Road of U.S.-Pakistani Ties

The U.S. discovery and killing of Osama bin Laden in a compound some 50 kilometres from Islamabad is a "defining moment" for a U.S.-Pakistan relationship fraught with duplicity and dashed expectations.

U.S. Refusal of 2001 Taliban Offer Gave bin Laden a Free Pass

When George W. Bush rejected a Taliban offer to have Osama bin Laden tried by a moderate group of Islamic states in mid- October 2001, he gave up the only opportunity the United States would have to end bin Laden's terrorist career for the next nine years.

INDIA-PAKISTAN: Osama’s Death Changes Little

Osama bin Laden’s killing by U.S. troops, in a safe house adjacent to a Pakistani military academy in Abbottabad, may vindicate India’s charges that its neighbour is a haven for jihadist groups, but it will do little to change that reality.

EU-PAKISTAN: Bin Laden’s Death May Sour Relations

In a surprise address late Sunday night, U.S. President Barack Obama declared Osama bin Laden - leader of the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda and the world’s most wanted fugitive - dead. According to Obama, bin Laden was captured and shot in Pakistan’s Abbottabad city, just north of Islamabad. Within minutes of the announcement, leaders across the globe began to issue statements expressing their views on bin Laden’s death.

PAKISTAN: Quiet Town in Deep Shock

The killing of Osama bin Laden in the garrison city Abbottabad in Pakistan has sent shockwaves among its citizens.The city of 600,000 seemed grief-stricken. Most people avoid media persons, who have arrived here in droves in this most peaceful place in the violence-wracked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Osama Death May Splinter Militants Further

The killing of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in an operation by the U.S. forces has dealt a serious blow to the beleaguered Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

U.S. Celebrates Controversial Justice

By a few minutes before midnight on May 1, huge jubilant crowds had amassed outside the White House in Washington D.C. and around Ground Zero and Times Square in New York City.

U.S.: Bin Laden’s Killing Could Alter Af-Pak, Other Policies

Sunday's killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by a small, helicopter-borne team of U.S. Navy Seals could result in significant impacts on U.S. relations and strategy both in Pakistan, where the raid was carried out, and neighbouring Afghanistan, where it was launched, according to policy experts here.

Dramatic End to Long Hunt

In the middle of the night, in an affluent suburb a little over 50 kilometres north of Islamabad, Pakistan, Osama bin Laden was gunned down in a compound shielded by barbed wire-topped walls up to five-and-a-half metres high. He resisted, United States officials say, fighting till the death as he had vowed he would.

‘Good News’ on Holocaust Anniversary

Israelis woke up in the morning of Holocaust Remembrance Day, switched on their radio, and heard unexpected "good news".

Osama Killing Shakes Up Pakistan

Shabbir Hasan, 49, was woken up in the dead of the night to the sound of the "roar of a really low-flying helicopter." Hasan, a businessman, has lived in the hill station in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province all his life. The sleepy town is known for its educational institutions - and military establishments.

Osama Bin Laden Killed in Pakistan

Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, is dead. U.S. president Barack Obama said bin Laden, the most-wanted fugitive on the U.S. list, had been killed on Sunday in a U.S. operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, about 150km north of Islamabad.

SPAIN: ETA Announces End to 40 Years of Extortion

The Confebask business association in northern Spain reported that it received a letter from the armed Basque separatist group ETA, announcing the cancellation of "the revolutionary tax" that it has charged businesses over the last 40 years.

Wikileaks Files Reveal Failures of U.S. Intelligence

Was Adel Hamlily an agent for MI6, the British secret services, and simultaneously a "facilitator, courier, kidnapper, and assassin for al-Qaida"? Was there a secret al Qaeda cell in Bremen that even the German government knew nothing about? And could it be possible that an 11-year-old Saudi villager was leading a terrorist cell in London?

Why U.S. and NATO Fed Detainees to Afghan Torture System

Starting in late 2005, U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan began turning detainees over to the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS), despite its well-known reputation for torture.

U.N. Chief Powerless to Pursue War Crimes in Sri Lanka

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon admitted Monday he is not empowered to establish an international war crimes tribunal to probe the "serious violations" of international humanitarian and human rights law committed during the concluding stages of the decades-long conflict in Sri Lanka in May 2009.

Pakistan Moves to Curb More Aggressive U.S. Drone Strikes, Spying

The Pakistani military's recent demands on the United States to curb drone strikes and reduce the number of U.S. spies operating in Pakistan, which have raised tensions between the two countries to a new high, were a response to U.S. military and intelligence programmes that had gone well beyond what the Pakistanis had agreed to in past years.

Maliki’s Doubts Threaten Post-2011 Troop Presence Plan

President Barack Obama has given his approval to a Pentagon plan to station U.S. combat troops in Iraq beyond 2011, provided that Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki officially requests it, according to U.S. and Iraqi sources.

U.S. Treads Cautious Line on Yemen Protests

United States officials reaffirmed their support for a peaceful transition of power in Yemen, but stopped short of publicly calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh's immediate abdication as clashes between protesters and Yemeni security forces, which began in late January, violently escalate.

Rights Groups Deplore Order to Try 9/11 Suspects at Guantanamo

U.S. human rights groups reacted angrily to the Justice Department's announcement Monday that the self-acclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on Lower Manhattan and the Pentagon will be tried before a military commission at the Guantanamo detention facility in Cuba.

U.S.: Long-term Afghan Presence Likely to Derail Peace Talks

The announcement by U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defence Michele Flournoy in Congressional testimony Mar. 15 that the United States would continue to carry out "counter-terrorism operations" from "joint bases" in Afghanistan well beyond 2014 signaled that President Barack Obama has given up the negotiating flexibility he would need to be able to reach a peace agreement with the Taliban leadership.