The London conference on Afghanistan was being billed as a dud – hastily conceived, under prepared and potentially a political face-saver for two unpopular leaders, Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai.

Instead the conference has united the international community for a further commitment to Afghanistan’s future – albeit for a shortened period.

Even more significant, there is broad agreement that talking to the Taliban is the only way to bring the insurgency to an end.  Read more... (720 words, 1 image, estimated 2:53 mins reading time)

“We did purchase a residence for the ambassador,” his assistant said.

RAWA: According to the latest UNDP Human Development Report, Afghanistan is ranked 181 out of 182 countries, based on UNICEF survey more than half of all children under age five suffer from malnutrition, and Afghanistan’s new National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA) finding say that average per capita monthly expenditure of nine million Afghans is less than 66 US cents a day, and millions of other Afghans spend only $42 a month.  Read more... (614 words, 1 image, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

OTTAWA — There is significant evidence to indicate the Canadian government knew in 2006 that Afghan detainees were being tortured and abused, says a Canadian professor of international law, who adds if detainees were handed over to Afghan forces, that would likely constitute a war crime.

“The law is clear. Where there are substantial grounds for the risk of torture . . . there is an absolute obligation to stop that transfer,” said Errol Mendes, from the University of Ottawa, on Wednesday. “(The law) doesn’t say, as (Defence Minister) Peter MacKay keeps on saying in Parliament, that you have to have proven allegations.”  Read more... (475 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

KABUL – Seven Afghans were killed and 44 wounded by a suicide car bomb on Tuesday outside a hotel used by foreigners in Kabul‘s main diplomatic area and across the street from a former vice president’s home, a security official said.

The blast took place shortly before President Hamid Karzai began speaking at an anti-corruption conference elsewhere in the Afghan capital.

The wreckage of the bomber’s car was in flames outside the gate to the Heetal Hotel in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, sending thick black smoke into the sky.  Read more... (446 words, 1 image, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

MONROVIA, Liberia – Hundreds of people jammed into a Monrovia church to mourn a Liberian United Nations worker killed in an October attack by Taliban gunmen in Afghanistan‘s capital.

Mourners wept late Saturday as a blue U.N. flag was laid over the casket of Yah Lydia Wonyene. U.N. workers at the funeral said the 47-year-old election worker was one of five U.N. staffers killed Oct. 28 attack in Kabul. She is survived by a son.

Eleven people, including three of the attackers, died during the attack, when Taliban gunmen stormed a guest house full of U.N. workers.  Read more... (120 words, 1 image, estimated 29 secs reading time)

First published on 2nd November 2009

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has been quietly working with U.S. allies and Afghan officials on a package of reforms and anti-corruption measures that it hopes will boost popular support for President Hamid Karzai and erase the doubts about his legitimacy raised by his fraud-marred re-election.

The success of the so-called “Afghanistan Compact” will hinge on Karzai’s willingness to take bold actions such as cracking down on official corruption, replacing ineffective ministers and surrendering some power to local authorities, which in the past he’s resisted or failed to undertake.  Read more... (1192 words, 1 image, estimated 4:46 mins reading time)

DEFENCE Secretary and Coventry MP Bob Ainsworth returned to home territory with hostility from Afghanistan war opponents who demanded the Government engages in talks with the Muslim world and the Taliban.

Leading the attack at last night’s fractious debate at the Central Methodist Hall against the Government’s ambition of creating a secure Afghanistan partly through force was Bruce Kent, honorary vice-president of CND.

Also the chair of the Movement for the Abolition of War, he told Mr Ainsworth: “There should be talks with the Taliban in neutral countries and talk about their aims. They are not fanatical maniacs. Their aims are not insensible.”  Read more... (282 words, 1 image, estimated 1:08 mins reading time)

First published on 28th June 2009

NIZHNY PANJ, Tajikistan — In August 2007, the presidents of Afghanistan and Tajikistan walked side by side with the U.S. commerce secretary across a new $37 million concrete bridge that the Army Corps of Engineers designed to link two of Central Asia‘s poorest countries.

Dressed in a gray suit with an American flag pin in his lapel, then-Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the modest two-lane span that U.S. taxpayers paid for would be “a critical transit route for trade and commerce” between Afghanistan and Tajikistan.  Read more... (2249 words, 1 image, estimated 8:60 mins reading time)

First published on 29th June 2009

CHELYABINSK, Russia — Young men with sores on their arms shuffled up the stairs of a dark, underground shopping arcade and into the daylight to plop dingy wads of rubles into the drug dealers’ hands. The dealers casually reached into their pockets or plastic shopping bags and handed over tablets of synthetic morphine, a type also used as a horse tranquilizer, and paper packets that appeared to contain heroin.

Across the street in this gray, post-Soviet industrial town, two Russian policemen sat in a faded wooden booth, and a couple more sat in a police truck outside. They didn’t seem the least bit interested.  Read more... (2010 words, 1 image, estimated 8:02 mins reading time)

First Published on 18th November 2009

MAHMUD-I-RAQI, Afghanistan — Hamid Karzai may be Afghanistan’s next president — the result of ballot rigging and his opponent’s withdrawal from a runoff — but Afghanistan’s elections are far from over.

In the 34 provinces, legions of frustrated candidates who took part in district elections on Aug. 20 are still awaiting a final outcome. They say that the results of provincial balloting, which occurred the same day as the disputed presidential race, were skewed by insurgent violence, voter intimidation, ballot box stuffing and misconduct.  Read more... (1171 words, 1 image, estimated 4:41 mins reading time)