Ron Synovitz is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL.
General Jones addresses troops during his visit The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has completed the deployment of an additional 2,000 troops to support Afghanistan's upcoming parliamentary elections. With a total of 11,000 troops across the country, ISAF is now larger and more widely deployed than it has ever been during nearly four years of UN-backed political reforms known as the Bonn Process. In addition, NATO's top commander says the alliance is now planning for an expanded role that would merge UN-mandated security assistance with U.S.-led combat operations.
Census takers interview Afghan refugees earlier this year in Lahore, Pakistan Pakistan has rejected a request from Kabul to delay the closure of Afghan refugee camps within Pakistan's tribal areas. Islamabad says the closures are necessary to eliminate safe havens for militants crossing the border to and from southeastern Afghanistan. Afghan officials accuse Pakistan's security forces of ignoring such cross-border infiltrations amid increasing militant violence ahead of September's parliamentary elections in Afghanistan. Pakistan's decision means the refugees have until the end of August to either sign up for voluntary repatriation or move to other refugee camps in Pakistan.
A policeman arrests a prostitute in Russia in 2001 UNESCO, the UN's cultural organization, has proclaimed 23 August as International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. But despite laws against slavery in all of the world's countries, modern-day slavery continues to thrive in illegal underground forms. In the second of a two-part series, RFE/RL correspondent Ron Synovitz examines how the latest wave of sex-slave trafficking preys upon Eastern European women to fuel the global sex trade.
A child works at a carpet loom in Lahore, Pakistan UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, has proclaimed 23 August as International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. The date commemorates a revolt in 1791 by slaves in what is now Haiti -- an event considered a decisive victory of slaves against their oppressors. But despite laws in all of the world's countries against slavery, the United Nations says the practice continues in illegal underground forms.
An Afghan refugee in a camp near Karachi Citing security concerns, Pakistan's government is evicting some 30,000 Afghans from an impoverished refugee settlement near Islamabad. The name of the illegal settlement, Kacha Abadi, literally means "houses made from mud." Thousands of poor Afghan refugees have gathered there during the past 25 years -- establishing a tent city before eventually building primitive mud-brick shelters on land they do not own. Islamabad's eviction order comes after consultations with both the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Afghan government. The UNHCR says the move is not "forcible repatriation" because refugees can choose to either go voluntarily back to Afghanistan or to official refugee camps further from the capital. But several residents of Kacha Abadi told RFE/RL they fear they will be unable to feed their families if they move away from employment opportunities in Islamabad and neighboring Rawalpindi.
After a week of intense debate, six-party talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula entered a second week today with no sign of a breakthrough or compromise. The diplomats are trying to agree on a draft statement of principles for future negotiations. Delegation chiefs say the talks are at a critical stage and that much depends on North Korea.
Members of Iraq's Constitution Drafting Committee (file photo) The chairman of Iraq's constitution drafting commission says the group will try to meet its 15 August deadline to complete the draft document rather than ask parliament for an extension. The committee has come under intense pressure from the United States, which fears that delays in the constitutional process could be exploited by insurgents and widen divisions among Iraq's main ethnic and religious groups.
31 July 2005 -- U.S. officials have confirmed that they have been asked to withdraw all U.S. military forces from the Karshi-Khanabad air base in southern Uzbekistan, which has served as a hub for U.S.-led coalition missions in Afghanistan since shortly after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.
Those who fled to Kyrgyzstan could face torture if returned to Uzbekistan The UN says witness testimony strongly suggests Uzbekistan's security forces committed serious human rights violations by firing on unarmed demonstrators in the eastern town of Andijon two months ago. The Uzbek government says fewer than 200 were killed when authorities suppressed the Andijon uprising on 13 May. Authorities claim most of those killed were either armed terrorists or security troops fired upon by gunmen. But human rights groups have maintained that up to 750 died and that most were unarmed civilians. A report released yesterday by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour says an international investigation needs to be carried out "promptly" inside Uzbekistan.
U.S. soldiers control traffic outside Kabul today during the manhunt for the missing detainees Hundreds of U.S. and Afghan troops are continuing a hunt for four suspected Arab Al-Qaeda militants who escaped yesterday from the U.S. military detention center at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul. Authorities say they think the escapees are hiding near the airfield -- which is on an open expanse of land on the Shomali Plain. Afghan officials note that local inhabitants are predominantly supporters of the slain anti-Taliban and anti-Al-Qaeda commander Ahmad Shah Masood. They say they do not expect foreign Al-Qaeda fighters to get sympathy from the local population.
11 July 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The sound of Muslim prayer music echoed through the valley of Srebrenica today as an estimated 50,000 people gathered to mark the 10th anniversary of the slaughter of nearly 8,000 Bosnian men and boys there.
30 June, 2005 (RFE/RL) -- U.S. military officials said today they have located the wreckage of a U.S. Chinook helicopter that crashed two days ago in northeastern Afghanistan and expressed fear that all 17 soldiers aboard had perished, although the Pentagon declined to confirm any deaths.
Afghan women registering to vote in October 2004 presidential election Officials in Kabul say tens of thousands of Afghans have been registering to vote in September's parliamentary elections, despite a major upsurge in attacks by Taliban guerrillas in some parts of the country. Those attacks have targeted election workers, UN offices, and voter-registration stations. RFE/RL takes a closer look at how ordinary Afghans are reacting to the violence.
U.S. troops in Afghanistan (file photo) U.S. and Afghan government troops have advanced into southern Afghanistan's Khakeran Valley as part of an ongoing effort to flush Taliban fighters out of their strongholds ahead of September parliamentary elections. Hundreds of Taliban militants are thought to have fled into the mountains of Zabul Province after U.S. and British air strikes last week reportedly killed dozens of guerrillas in the area.
Presidents Karzai (left) and Musharraf (file photo) Afghan officials are again expressing concern that Islamabad is not doing enough to stop militants from sheltering in Pakistan and crossing into Afghanistan to carry out terrorist attacks. Complaints in recent weeks are linked to a rise in Taliban and Al-Qaeda violence ahead of September's parliamentary elections. During the past three months, the violence has been focused mostly in Kabul and the provinces that border Pakistan. Today, the Afghan Interior Ministry announced that more than 100 Taliban fighters have been killed in a battle that has been raging for three days in southern Afghanistan. But Kabul complained that 150 of the militants have escaped the onslaught by crossing into Pakistan.
(file photo) U.S. and Afghan officials say at least 40 Taliban fighters have been killed by air strikes since yesterday in the southern province of Kandahar. The air strikes targeted Taliban fighters who had seized districts of Kandahar and neighboring Helmand Province on 17 June. It is the latest in a series of battles in which the Taliban has employed tactics that differ from classic Afghan hit-and-run guerilla warfare. Afghan Trade Minister Amin Arsala, a top adviser to President Hamid Karzai, says the Taliban's new tactics are aimed at derailing September's parliamentary elections. He also says the tactics reflect desperation rather than a Taliban resurgence.
An Afghan soldier (file photo) A surge in violence during the past three months has left hundreds dead across eastern and southern Afghanistan. Extremists have carried out suicide bombings, while militants have kidnapped or killed aid and election workers. The bloodshed has sparked fears that the Afghan war is widening and that the violence could get worse ahead of September's parliamentary elections.
After a month of balloting in Lebanon's four-phase general elections, the alliance that opposed the presence of Syrian troops in the country appears set to control a majority in the new parliament. Unofficial final results from yesterday's voting show the alliance, led by Saad Hariri -- son of slain former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri -- taking an overall total of 72 seats in the 128-member assembly. The results are seen to have regional and international implications -- including the potential to influence events in neighboring Syria.
A photo representation of the cholera bacteria Afghan authorities are rushing to chlorinate hundreds of drinking water wells across Kabul amid fears that the city could be on the verge of a cholera epidemic. International health experts say at least eight Kabul residents have died recently from an apparent waterborne disease that causes acute diarrhea and severe dehydration. Some Afghan health officials say the disease is not cholera. But whatever the case, authorities agree that poor hygiene and sanitation practices put people at risk of contracting the disease.
Guantanamo Bay U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are strongly defending operations at the U.S. military's terrorist suspect detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying there is no need to close the facility. The remarks come as human rights organizations and some U.S. lawmakers are calling for an independent investigation of alleged abuse at the detention center. They say the allegations are hurting America's image.
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