Kabul: Afghan officials say gunmen have killed a provincial judge and his young niece in eastern Afghanistan. A district official in Nangarhar province says the head of the appeals court for neighboring Kunar province was visiting family in a village outside of Jalalabad on Saturday when gunmen burst into the house and opened fire. Khogyani District Administrator Mohammad Asan says Judge Mohammad Nasir was killed, along with his eight-year-old niece....
04:01 PM, Feb 12, 2012
Kandahar: A car bomb exploded just outside the police headquarters of a southern Afghanistan city on Sunday, killing at least seven people, officials said. The blast went off at a parking lot outside the police building in Kandahar, said Saisal Ahmad, a spokesman for the provincial government. Five police officers and two civilians were killed, and least 19 people were wounded, he added. The blast was large enough that it...
02:32 PM, Feb 05, 2012
Srinagar: A moderate intensity earthquake rocked the Kashmir Valley on Saturday morning, disaster management officials said. No damage to life or property has been reported so far. "The magnitude of the earthquake was 4.7 on the Richter Scale. It occured at 5.02 AM on Saturday morning," Aamir Ali, in-charge of the provincial disaster management cell, told IANS. "The epicentre of the quake was in the Hindukush mountain range of Afghanistan....
01:19 PM, Feb 04, 2012
Washington: Reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar wrote to US President Barack Obama last year indicating an interest in talks key to ending the war in Afghanistan, current and former US officials told The Associated Press. The letter purportedly from Omar was unsigned. It was passed through a Taliban intermediary in July and intended for the White House. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the letter and its...
07:49 AM, Feb 04, 2012
Brussels: NATO's top official said on Friday that the alliance expects regional powers to contribute to a multibillion dollar fund to finance the Afghan army and police after they assume full responsibility for the war in 2014. Since Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest nations cannot foot the estimated $ 6 billion annual bill, NATO nations will have to pay the bulk of it. But austerity measures and budgetary cuts...
11:24 PM, Feb 03, 2012
Washington: The visit of the Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to Kabul was good and well timed, the United States has said even as it awaited the details of the trip from the two countries. "We look forward to a debrief from both Afghans and Pakistanis on the visit, but from what we can tell so far, it seems to have been a very good and well-timed visit," the...
08:34 AM, Feb 03, 2012
Washington: Instead of diving into a "pseudo" reconciliation process to justify an early pullout of troops from Afghanistan, Obama Administration must pay attention on the fact that Taliban will use any negotiations to strengthen their hold in the country, an eminent US expert has said. The building blocks for genuine peace and stability in Afghanistan are simply not yet in place, said Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation. "The recent...
08:28 AM, Feb 03, 2012
Washington: Doubting the "willingness" of Pakistan to go after the militant groups enjoying sanctuary in the country, a top US intelligence official has said these elements have caused major problems for the Afghan and coalition forces working for a "new" Afghanistan. "We should be cautious in what we anticipate in terms of the ability of our Pakistani partners, and in some cases the willingness to go after again the Haqqani...
07:43 AM, Feb 03, 2012
Washington: The US is planning to end its combat operations in Afghanistan by mid 2013 and would switch to a "train-and-assist" role, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said. Last June, Obama ordered all 33,000 US surge troops home from Afghanistan by the middle of 2012. "Hopefully, by mid- to the latter part of 2013, we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a training, advice and...
09:25 AM, Feb 02, 2012
Washington: The US on Wednesday said it has "long standing concerns" over ISI's links with the Taliban and wants Pakistan to "cut-off" those ties, hours after a NATO report blew the lid off the intelligence agency's "manipulation" of Afghan Taliban's senior leadership. Pentagon spokesperson Navy Capt John Kirby told reporters during an off-camera briefing that the facts laid bare by the damning report were "not a new notion" and these...
06:39 AM, Feb 02, 2012
Brussels: NATO's top official said Monday that the alliance will adhere to its plans to hand over security to local forces in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, comments that came after France said it would push NATO to speed up its timeline for the handover of combat operations by a year. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen acknowledged that the final transition phase, which involves handing over lead responsibility for...
08:01 AM, Jan 31, 2012
Kabul: Afghanistan will press Pakistan for access to Taliban leaders during a one-day visit to Kabul by Pakistan's foreign minister, with Afghan officials hoping to ease cross-border strains and lay the ground for peace negotiations with the insurgents. Hina Rabbani Khar will visit Kabul on February 1 to discuss reconciliation and nascent plans for peace talks ahead of a meeting between representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban in...
02:23 AM, Jan 31, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Friday that money earned from trafficking of drugs and arms is being used to finance terrorist activities in the country. "I have strong indicators and data that terrorists have a role in drug trafficking and other illegal activities to generate quick money," Malik said at a ceremony where the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI)...
11:40 PM, Jan 27, 2012
New Delhi: Twenty Afghan children, who have seen war and violence in their country, will be exposed to democracy and India's cultural diversity on Thursday at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi. The Indian embassy in Kabul has sent these 20 children to see India where they will see both ancient and modern structures here including the metro rail to get a feel of how democracy helps in development...
08:25 AM, Jan 26, 2012
New Delhi: Aiming at providing them exposure to democracy and its benefits, the Indian embassy in Kabul has sent a group of 20 children from Afghanistan who will also witness the Republic Day parade on Thursday. The embassy there has sent these 20 children to see India. They will see both ancient and modern structures such as the metro rail to get a feel of how democracy helps in development...
05:17 PM, Jan 25, 2012
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