Feature / Analysis

U.S. contractor illegally detained in Afghanistan, officials say

Afghan officials release David Gordon after intervention by three U.S. congressmen, who allege he was held unlawfully and beaten because of his company's contractual dispute with a Kabul firm. KABUL, Afghanistan: An American contractor was detained illegally for 24 hours in an Afghan prison, beaten...

Afghanistan 2014: A look one year out

Term limits preclude Hamid Karzai from seeking re-election in the Afghan presidential election slated to occur one year from today (parliamentary elections will follow in 2015). So, for the first time since 2001, Afghanistan will soon have a new chief executive along with a new parliament, a leaders...

Those Who Plant Mines Will Go to Hell: Mojaddedi

Those who place roadside bombs and other types of improvised explosives will go to hell for their deeds, High Peace Council member Sibghatullah Mojaddedi said Wednesday, drawing similarities between the makeshift bombs and suicide bombing. Speaking at an event for the occasion of International Day...

International pull-out threatens Afghan de-mining

SANGAW, Afghanistan: Since Haji Abdul Samad lost his leg in a minefield more than 20 years ago; he has unearthed at least 1,000 explosives and become one of Afghanistan's most experienced de-miners. "After my accident, I told myself that I had to do work to save lives. I had to clean the rivers, h...

Hidden enemies: Afghanistan combats landmines

There are landmines hidden in nearly all of Afghanistan's provinces. Playing children are especially at risk of detonating the devices, which have already cost thousands of lives in the country. The 13-year-old Firoz Ali Alizada was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he decided to take a sh...

As U.S. Departs, Afghan Business Dries Up

BAGRAM, Afghanistan: The Aria Water Plant, built in 2006 north of Kabul, is a state-of-the-art facility that can produce 100,000 cases of purified drinking water per week—an unusual success story from the decade long American enterprise in Afghanistan. But with U.S. military involvement in the nat...

Pakistan's Ruling Elite...........

The dominant features of Pakistan’s ruling elite are their arrogance, excessive pride, an autocratic mindset, a tendency to flaunt their wealth and a deliberate indifference, if not disdain, towards the common man. The elite comprise: (1) higher echelons of the military and civil bureaucracies, in...

Future of feudalism in Pakistan: Role of global capital

Certain enlightened Pakistani expatriates in the USA have developed a consensus that the genesis of what ails Pakistan can be traced to the feudal system our former colonial masters imposed on India. The colonizers declared them and their vassals a martial race, and used them against their own count...

The Duty to Avoid a War in Korea‏

A few days ago I mentioned the great challenges humanity is currently facing. Intelligent life emerged on our planet approximately 200,000 years ago, although new discoveries demonstrate something else.This is not to confuse intelligent life with the existence of life which, from its elemental forms...

True Costs of Iraq War Whitewashed by Fuzzy Maths

" - 'So many', wrote TS Eliot, reflecting on the waste land left by the First World War. "I had not thought death had undone so many."This notion is unlikely to cross the minds of those surveying the devastation left by the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The most frequently quoted fatality figure - about 11...

Propaganda

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”—Edward Bernays,...

Karzai’s old rival edges towards election

As the one-year countdown to Afghan elections begins, the man who lost out last time in a corrupt and chaotic poll is weighing up whether to risk another shot at the presidency. Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the second round of the 2009 election after massive vote-rigging by President Hamid Karz...

Afghanistan peace deal: Taliban talks hit deadlock

Western hopes fade for agreement before 2014 pullout as negotiations in Qatar stall Western hopes of leaving Afghanistan within reach of a peace deal when NATO troops pull out in 2014 are dimming, with planned negotiations in Qatar at a stalemate and Pakistan cutting back on support for talks. Af...

Top U.S. commander talks extending Afghanistan mission

KABUL: The war in Afghanistan is entering an uncertain and dangerous phase. The Obama administration is trying to figure out how to bring most U.S. forces home by the end of next year, but still leave enough to be sure Afghanistan does not slip back into chaos. The new man in charge of that is a M...

Karzai says history to judge his record

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has said history will judge his track record in office as his country prepares for foreign troop withdrawal in 2014. "My place in history will be judged by Afghan history; by what I have done and it will be judged better after 2014 when I am no longer the presid...

Pakistan Border Post Sparks New Feud With Afghanistan

The Afghan government demanded on Monday that Pakistan halt "provocative and unacceptable" activities along their shared border, objecting to the uncoordinated construction of a Pakistani check post and stepping up a verbal war between the two neighbors. The rift sharpens a recent confrontation th...

Iran sanctions spur boom for Pakistani diesel smugglers

JOGAR, Pakistan: Some of the contraband is spirited across the mountains in Pepsi bottles carried by child smugglers. Yet more is loaded into pick-up trucks or siphoned into barrels and strapped onto mules. So lucrative are the returns that even seasoned opium traffickers are abandoning their trad...

Afghan Who Agreed to Trade His Daughter to End a Debt Says It Was Paid

KABUL, Afghanistan: After the publication of an article in The New York Times on Monday about an Afghan man who had agreed to give his 6-year-old daughter in marriage to pay off his debt to another man, the father called The Times and said the debt had been paid nearly a month ago by an anonymous do...

More Afghans Seek Asylum as Troops Prepare to Withdraw

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN: For decades, some Afghans have fled insecurity at home by taking a risky journey abroad to claim asylum. As worries grow about what will happen after foreign troops withdraw in 2014, more people are considering taking a gamble on a future far from home. Afghans know there are per...

Oily ducks found following Arkansas oil spill

MAYFLOWER, Ark: The environmental impacts of an oil spill in central Arkansas began to come into focus Monday as officials said a couple of dead ducks and 10 live oily birds were found after an ExxonMobil pipeline ruptured last week."I'm an animal lover, a wildlife lover, as probably most of the peo...

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