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In Afghanistan, the number of kids in school has grown more than six times since the Taliban were in power. But millions of children still wait, and classrooms and qualified teachers are lacking.
UNITED NATIONS -- The United Nations' top envoy in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said Friday that he would step down from his post in March, ending a tumultuous tenure that was marred by allegations of widespread corruption in Afghanistan's U.N.-backed presidential election.
The top U.N. official in Afghanistan said Friday he will not renew his contract when it expires in March after a two-year tenure marred by controversy over his handling of the country's fraud-marred presidential election and a deadly attack on U.N. workers.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, says the United States cannot provide the war-torn nation with an "endless surge" of combat forces.
It will be months before the 30,000 new troops will have gone to war in Afghanistan. But President Obama already has increased attacks by pilotless Predator drone aircraft against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal areas.
In Khan Neshin, near the Pakistan border, recruitment of locals for the Afghanistan war effort is an often frustrating process. Obstacles include candidates' drug use, illiteracy, and fear of the Taliban.
Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is turning to local militias in Afghanistan and expanding support of provincial authorities to overcome weaknesses in President Hamid Karzai’s government in Kabul, officials said at hearings on the war that ended yesterday in Washington.
The five men from Northern Virginia under arrest in Pakistan had exchanged e-mails written in code for months with a recruiter for the Pakistani Taliban and had a map indicating they were bound for the tribal area where al-Qaeda is thought to be based, Pakistani police officials said Friday.
Talk to Russian veterans of Afghanistan and it's hard not to think that they're rooting for the U.S. to lose. For these proud men, seeing NATO succeed at a job they botched would deepen the humiliation of defeat. Easier to affirm that if the Soviets couldn't win there, no one can. "We did not succeed and you will not either," says Gen. Victor Yermakov, who commanded Soviet forces in Afghanistan ...
Dogs fight it out as people watch in Kabul, Afghanistan Friday. Every Friday, the Muslim day of rest, hundreds of people participate in the dog fights which were banned when the Taliban religious army was in power.
Men play Buzkashi in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Dec. 11, 2009. Buzkashi, or goat dragging, which is played by two teams of horsemen competing to throw a beheaded 30-kilogram (66 pound) calf, goat or sheep, as the ball, into a scoring circle.
While the President's West Point speech posited an accelerated troop buildup followed by an expedited withdrawal, his military commanders acknowledge a messier reality
Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is helping local militias in Afghanistan and stepping up support of provincial authorities to overcome weaknesses in President Hamid Karzai ’s government in Kabul, officials told Congress in war hearings that ended today.
As of Friday, Dec. 11, 2009, at least 858 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Friday at 10 a.m. EST.
Germany’s defense minister made a surprise visit to Afghanistan Friday amid a growing controversy over the killing of over 142 people in a NATO airstrike in September.
The US cannot simply emphasize the numbers. It has to focus on quality training for the Afghanistan National Army.
