Ron Synovitz is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL.
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta has called for more international help to fight terrorism and unrest in his country, saying that countering terror is a global concern.
An essential part of Kabul's strategy to eradicate opium-poppy cultivation is to help farmers grow alternative crops. Some critics argue that few crops can earn Afghan farmers enough money to be a realistic alternative to opium.
Some say the violence reflects growing resentment over foreign troops and NGOs, but suspects also include antigovernment political groups, common criminals, and "enemies" of Afghanistan.
PRAGUE, May 25, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki met in Islamabad today with Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Mottaki said the goal of his two-day visit to Pakistan is to improve communications and bilateral relations -- particularly in the area of trade.
Most Western military experts agree that the Taliban offensive is aimed at derailing NATO's expansion into southern Afghanistan, but is it also targeting public opinion?
At a summit in Sofia, NATO foreign ministers are expected to discuss Iran's nuclear program and the planned deployment in southern Afghanistan, but also begin talks about how to respond to the aspirations of prospective new members.
Intense overnight fighting killed eight suspected Taliban fighters and an Afghan police officer in Helmand and Kandahar provinces, following threats by the Taliban to target British and Canadian soldiers, who are currently being deployed in the south.
Pakistan's Musharraf (left) and Afghanistan's Karzai have not been so friendly of late (epa) Visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai said today in India that he wants to involve both India and Pakistan in the three-way cooperation scheme that would enhance both security and economic development. Karzai is continuing an official visit to India that has focused on regional security and India's support for Afghan reconstruction.
The UN has declared the first International Day for Mine Awareness, meant to highlight the nearly 20,000 deaths and serious injuries caused annually by land mines from conflicts in more than 80 countries.
An Afghan border-police chief who claimed that his officers killed 16 Taliban fighters in southern Kandahar Province last week is now under investigation for allegedly using the war on terrorism as an excuse to settle a personal blood feud.
A Taliban spokesman says the group has begun a new offensive in the southern part of the country. A bold attack has already left two coalition soldiers dead.
Despite the release of an Afghan man who faced a possible death sentence because of his conversion from Islam to Christianity, Human Rights Watch says it is not enough for Afghan courts to declare that Abdul Rahman is mentally unfit to face trial.
An Afghan man who faces a possible death sentence for converting to Christianity has undergone mental tests that could spare him from execution.
Recent tensions between Kabul and Islamabad show that mutual suspicions still exist in an old dispute known as the "Pashtunistan question." And it is a question with a fundamental bearing on foreign policy.
The Afghan government faces growing international pressure to intervene in a court case in which a man faces a possible death sentence because he converted from Islam to Christianity.
President Hamid Karzai has approved a list of names for his new cabinet, with one name conspicuously absent from the proposed cabinet: Abdullah Abdullah, the man who has been the foreign minister for the past four years.
RFE/RL correspondent Ron Synovitz was embedded with U.S. soldiers as they advanced to Baghdad in March and April 2003. In a "Reporter's Notebook" marking the third anniversary of the U.S.-led campaign to depose Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Synovitz describes the events he witnessed during the first day of major combat by the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division -- the siege of Tallil Airfield and other objectives near Al-Nasiriyah.
A diplomatic row between Pakistan and Afghanistan has intensified in the week since U.S. President George W. Bush toured South Asia. RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan has spoken with prominent experts about the dispute.
Soldiers in Waziristan near the Afghan border (file photo) (epa) Dozens of people have been fleeing a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan today in fear of fighting between government troops and pro-Taliban militants. Artillery barrages by the Pakistani army destroyed at least five buildings in Naurak after militants there late on March 7 ambushed the convoy of the top administrator for the tribal region of North Waziristan. Meanwhile, the U.S. military's Central Command chief, U.S. General John Abizaid, is in Pakistan today for talks with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in an effort to defuse tensions between Kabul and Islamabad.
Pakistan says it controls the main town in North Waziristan after intense fighting that killed some 100 Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants. The area is closed to journalists, but RFE/RL correspondents have spoken to refugees.
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