New Bid to Break Afghanistan Stalemate

As the Barack Obama administration seeks to limit its involvement in a third Muslim conflict in Libya, efforts are intensifying to help it find a political solution to the longest U.S. war – in Afghanistan.

U.N. Reported Only a Fraction of Civilian Deaths from U.S. Raids

The number of civilians killed in U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) raids last year was probably several times higher than the figure of 80 people cited in the U.N. report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan published last week, an IPS investigation has revealed.

MIDEAST: Obama Besieged by Policy Challenges

Rarely, if ever, has a post-World War II U.S. president been beset by so many foreign policy challenges and uncertainties in one key geo-strategic region at the same time.

U.S. Hearing on ‘Radical Islam’ Opens

Al-Qaeda is targeting Muslim Americans for recruits to terrorism and the community must do more to combat radicalisation, a U.S. politician has said as he opened hearings in Washington that have been criticised as a witch hunt.

Ancient Buddhas Will Not Be Rebuilt – UNESCO

Afghanistan's historic Bamiyan Buddhas, destroyed by the Taliban 10 years ago, will not be reconstructed despite claims the 1,500-year-old statues could be repaired, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) said Thursday.

YEMEN: Death Toll Rising at Peaceful Protests

Despite an ongoing dialogue between U.S. officials, human rights groups and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh regarding concerns over the use of lethal force to quell anti- government protests throughout the Persian Gulf state, the death toll continues to rise in Yemen's port city of Aden and in other locations.

U.S.: Critics Condemn Islam Hearings as Witch Hunts

On the eve of a controversial hearing by lawmakers on extremist Islam in the United States, civil rights and Muslim- American groups are warning of its potential repercussions, which they say may undermine the very intent of the proceeding.

Pakistan Minorities Minister Killed

Pakistan's minister for minorities has been shot dead by armed men in Islamabad.

Kurd Issue to the Fore Ahead of Elections

Sultan Quyun, 58, longs for the day when the decades-long conflict between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Turkish security forces will come to an end. For her, the end of violence does not just hold the promise of a possible resolution of the Kurdish issue in the country, but would bring about, she hopes, a much-awaited reunion with her son.

YEMEN: U.S. Rebuts Saleh’s Charges

Amid growing pressure on President Barack Obama to intervene more forcefully in Libya, the White House Tuesday sharply rebutted charges by Yemen's president that Washington is conspiring against his government and other Arab regimes.

US: Iranian “Terrorist” Group Courts Friends in High Places

For years now, supporters of the Iranian opposition group the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) have lobbied in vain to have the organisation taken off the U.S. State Department's terrorism list.

Critics Call Secret U.S.-Canada Talks “End Run Around Democracy”

The just-announced Canada-U.S. security perimetre discussions are comprehensive and potentially wide-ranging and could impact Canadian sovereignty. However, the domestic opposition appears to have been caught off-guard.

Residents of Razed Afghan Village Dispute U.S. Case for Destruction

The commander of U.S.-NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. James Terry, asserted last month that the homes systematically destroyed by U.S. forces across three districts of Kandahar province as part of Operation Dragon Strike in October and November "were abandoned, empty and wired with ingenious arrays of bombs".

Deferring to Petraeus, NIE Failed to Register Taliban Growth

Despite evidence that the Taliban insurgency had grown significantly in 2010, the U.S. intelligence community failed to revise its estimate for Taliban forces as part of a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan in December.

EGYPT-U.S.: The Brotherhood Bogeyman

While the many and far-reaching implications of Friday's transfer of power to what is apparently a military junta in Egypt have yet to be absorbed here, the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in any transition to a more democratic regime is certain to figure high on the political agenda.

No More Immunity for George W. Bush – Abroad, at Least

Former U.S. President George W. Bush may have mostly vanished from the headlines since January 2009, but the alleged crimes committed by his administration are not forgotten.

Evidence of 2002 Taliban Offer Damages Myth of al Qaeda Ties

The central justification of the U.S.-NATO war against the Afghan Taliban - that the Taliban would allow al Qaeda to return to Afghanistan - has been challenged by new historical evidence of offers by the Taliban leadership to reconcile with the Hamid Karzai government after the fall of the Taliban government in late 2001.

U.S.: Life Sentence for Embassy Bomber Praised by Rights Groups

In the first successful prosecution of a Guantanamo detainee handled entirely by civilian courts, a federal judge Tuesday sentenced Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani to life in prison without parole for his role in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and injured hundreds of others.

SPAIN: ETA Ceasefire Met with Wide Scepticism

Spain's political parties demanded that ETA surrender its weapons and abandon violence for good, in response to a statement issued by the group Monday in which it declared a permanent ceasefire, verifiable by the international community, and called for negotiation.

How Afghanistan Became a War for NATO

The official line of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO command in Afghanistan, is that the war against Afghan insurgents is vital to the security of all the countries providing troops there.

AFPAK: Give Us This Day Our Weekly Drone

Hundreds of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders have fallen to drones since the first attack that killed Taliban leader Nek Muhammad in South Waziristan. Now many local people welcome drones.