Afghan calligrapher creates world’s largest Qur’an
Arab News: KABUL: An Afghan calligrapher has worked for five years to create the world’s biggest Qur’an, a bid to show the world that Afghanistan’s rich cultural heritage and traditions […]
Negotiations and great games in Afghanistan
Source:Asiatimes By Brian M Downing Hopes for a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan are beginning once more, but the problematic Byzantine geopolitics are not readily apparent. It is not the bipolar confrontation between Britain and Russia that it was in the 19th century. Nor is it simply the International Security Assistance […]
Talking to the Enemy – How German Diplomats Opened Channel to Taliban
By Christoph Reuter, Gregor Peter Schmitz and Holger Stark, SPIEGEL-ONLINE After months of secret negotiations, the Taliban are opening a political office in Qatar, a first step toward peace talks […]
Journalism in Afghanistan – Warlord TV
Source: Qantara Journalism in Afghanistan has been reborn, rising from the ashes of the Taliban regime. The country currently boasts 150 radio stations and 30 television channels. But how free […]
Playing chess in Eurasia
Source: Asiatimes on Line By Pepe Escobar Bets are off on which is the great story of 2011. Is it the Arab Spring(s)? Is it the Arab counter-revolution, unleashed by the House of Saud? Is it the “birth pangs” of the Greater Middle East remixed as serial regime changes? Is […]
Rights groups accuse Europe of CIA flights cover-up
LONDON: A majority of 28 mostly European countries have failed to comply with freedom of information requests about their involvement in secret CIA flights carrying suspected terrorists, two human rights groups said Monday. London-based Reprieve and Madrid-based Access Info Europe accused European nations of covering up their complicity in the […]
Afghanistan – A swift Rise in telecom services
Afghanistan, the landlocked country located in the center of Asia, comprises of a population of 29 mn. The telecom industry of the country has significantly shot up after the fall of Taliban and with the total teledensity reaching 65%, the growth which the telecom industry has encountered is really praiseworthy. […]
Build ties like India does, Pak tells Afghanistan
Source: TOI. NEW YORK: Citing the “enormous maturity” shown by India in dealing with Indo-Pak issues, Pakistan has advised Afghanistan to “take a leaf out of the Indian book” and learn about building ties, instead of engaging in an “accusatory game” towards it. More:
Afghanistan bombs kill 58 in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif
Source / Courtesy: BBC The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville: “It seems this was a co-ordinated attack; it certainly seems to have a sectarian element” Twin attacks apparently targeting Shia Muslims have killed at least 58 people in Afghanistan. In the deadliest incident, a suspected suicide bomb struck a shrine packed with […]
UN says law protecting Afghan women has ‘long way to go’
KABUL, Nov 23 (Reuters) – Afghan authorities are failing to enforce the law to protect women from murder, beating, rape and other violence and being sold into marriage and prostitution, the United Nations said on Wednesday. The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) revealed in a report that only a […]
Curse of 39 strikes Afghan Loya Jirga
Source: Daily Times: KABUL: A major meeting of Afghan elders discussing the country’s long-term relationship with the United States has been hit by a strange superstition surrounding the number 39, officials confirmed on Thursday. Some 2,000 elders at the Loya Jirga, now into a second day, have divided themselves up […]
Afghanistan mother and daughter stoned and shot dead
Source: BBC A group of armed men have stoned and shot dead a woman and her daughter in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, security officials have told the BBC. The officials blamed the Taliban, who they said had accused the women of “moral deviation and adultery”. The police said two men had […]
‘Kill team’ leader Calvin Gibbs guilty of murder
Source: BBC A US military court has convicted an American soldier of three counts of premeditated murder for leading a rogue “kill team” in Afghanistan. Sgt Calvin Gibbs, 26, admitted cutting and keeping fingers from corpses as war trophies, but said he was returning enemy fire and did not set […]
Afghanistan – touch down in flight
Source: Augustin Pictures As each of us has his own impression of Afghanistan that is predominantly marked with pictures of foreign forces, explosions and terror, we were privileged to have access to capture daily life and portrait some people of Afghanistan. We hope the pictures you know will merge with […]
Taliban commanders say Pakistan intelligence helps them
Source: Reuters Reporting By: Adrian Croft Pakistan’s security service provides weapons and training to Taliban insurgents fighting U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan, despite official denials, Taliban commanders say, in allegations that could worsen tensions between Pakistan and the United States. A number of middle-ranking Taliban commanders revealed the extent […]
ARAB NEWS Editorial: US troop pullout
After nearly nine years, the death of over 115,000 Iraqi civilians and more than 4,400 US troops, and the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars, President Barack Obama has said the last American soldier would leave Iraq by year’s end with his head held high. The troops are proud, […]
Small investors struggle while Afghanistan hopes for big deals
Source: The Globe and Mail Author: Zhou Xin Afghanistan is in desperate need of investment to invigorate its tiny, fragile economy, but on top of the grave physical dangers of the decade-old war, businesses are put off by corruption, pitiful infrastructure, and a slothful bureaucracy. Even after the billions of […]
Parliamentarian’s hunger strike highlights Afghan political crisis
KABUL, Afghanistan — Semeen Barakzai lies in a white tent outside the Parliament building in Kabul. Having refused food and liquids for more than 11 days, she is very weak. Her kidneys are failing, she has been rushed to hospital on one occasion, and her family, friends and supporters fear […]
Afghanistan Sees Increase in Poppy Cultivation
Source: The New York Times Author: Jack Healy KABUL, Afghanistan — Despite increased efforts to destroy fields of opium poppies and wean Afghan farmers off the country’s biggest cash crop, poppy cultivation in Afghanistan rose in 2011 and spread into areas once declared “poppy free,” according to a United Nations […]
U.N. Finds ‘Systematic’ Torture in Afghanistan
Source: The New York Times Author: Alissa J. Rubin KABUL, Afghanistan — Detainees are hung by their hands and beaten with cables, and in some cases their genitals are twisted until the prisoners lose consciousness at sites run by the Afghan intelligence service and the Afghan National Police, according to […]