Feature / Analysis

Afghans Working With NATO-Led Forces Fear For The Future

They have been branded "traitors" by the Taliban, which has said for years that it will kill any Afghans working for the NATO-led coalition. With the majority of U.S. and NATO-led ISAF troops set to leave the country in 2014, many Afghans working in support positions look ahead with trepidation. ...

Rights groups dismayed by Afghanistan's return to executions

KABUL: Human rights groups reacted with dismay on Wednesday to Afghanistan's resumption of executions after a near-four-year moratorium on a penalty that characterized the austere rule of the former Taliban regime. Eight men found guilty of "crimes against the people, especially women and children...

Man's best friend takes on Afghanistan's enemy

KABUL: As NATO forces gear up to withdraw, Afghans are preparing to counter one of their deadliest enemies using man's best friend: dogs. At the Mine Detection and Dogs Centre (MDC) a few kilometers from Kabul's presidential palace, it looks like chaos with dogs yelping and crashing playfully into...

Afghanistan Says U.S. Broke Pact on Prisons

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused the U.S. on Monday of violating an agreement on transferring the country's main U.S. prison to Afghan control, demanding that Afghanistan take over the facility immediately and that many insurgent suspects be freed. Western officials say Kabul is trying...

Karzai Orders Afghan Forces to Take Control of American-Built Prison

KABUL, Afghanistan: President Hamid Karzai ordered Afghan forces to take control of the American-built Bagram Prison and accused American officials of violating an agreement to fully transfer the facility to the Afghans, according to a statement from his office on Monday. The move came after what ...

US opens Afghan talks on long-term troop presence after 2014

Robert Bales shooting trial puts thorny issue of US troop immunity centre stage, with Hamid Karzai hoping to wring tough concessions Kabul: Afghanistan and the US have opened talks to keep American troops in the country after most NATO forces go home in 2014, but the thorny question of immunity for...

As Coal Use Drops In U.S., China and India Burn Even More

Coal, the longtime king of America’s energy supply and a leading agent of climate change, is in rapid decline in the U.S. Four years ago it produced 50 percent of our electricity; by the end of the decade that may drop closer to 30 percent. Another 353 coal plants may be as good as dead. But don’t w...

NATO report exposed danger of Afghan 'insider attacks'

A damning report exposing the causes of a surge in “insider attacks” by Afghan troops was suppressed by military commanders, The Telegraph has learnt. NATO chiefs were warned last year, in a document they commissioned, that the attacks were “part of a growing and systematic threat” that was underm...

Afghans don't see NATO mission as an occupation, says Kite Runner author

Announcing UK stage play of bestselling book, Khaled Hosseini talks of his desire to forge ties between Afghanistan and west Six years after his second international bestseller came out, and as he announces the first British stage adaptation of The Kite Runner, the author and doctor Khaled Hosseini...

Afghanistan Says Pakistan Will Help in Peace Talks

KABUL, Afghanistan: A top Afghan peace mediator hailed Pakistan's recent decision to free nine members of the Taliban who favor negotiations, saying Saturday it was a sign Islamabad is willing to help bring the militant group to the table and end Afghanistan's 11-year-old war. The cooperation of P...

Fraud Trial Begins in Multimillion-Dollar Afghan Bank Scandal

KABUL, Afghanistan: A major step toward resolving the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars from Kabul Bank began last week with the trial of nearly two dozen people, including the bank’s former chairman and former chief executive, who are accused of being the main architects of a colossal fraud. ...

Needed: A sound exit strategy in Afghanistan

With US withdrawal, turmoil is bound to reemerge in Afghanistan and the entire region will again bear the consequences In his victory speech to a rapturous crowd in Chicago, following his re-election, President Barack Obama affirmed that America’s “decade-long conflict” in Afghanistan will now end...

Petraeus Scandal Not Losing Afghan Hearts And Minds

A sex scandal involving the United States' two most-recent military commanders in Afghanistan might be fueling media frenzy at home, but the response has been surprisingly muted in the Afghan theater of war. A public relations disaster could have been expected in Afghanistan after retired four-sta...

Afghan Economy Slows

KABUL: For the past 10 years, Afghanistan's economy has been heavily dependent on foreign aid and contracts linked to the needs of thousands of coalition troops. That will largely end in 2014 as foreign combat forces leave the country. The government is downplaying the potential impact, but business...

News Analysis: Islamabad's Afghan Taliban release major boost to peace process

ISLAMABAD: In response to the request of the Afghan Peace Council, Pakistan has freed 13 Afghan Taliban fighters, including a former senior military commander, with both sides now hoping that this gesture would push forward the much- awaited reconciliation process in the war-torn neighboring country...

Petraeus: More myth than man

Analysis: The savior of Iraq, the hero of Afghanistan — what is the reality behind the hype? BUZZARDS BAY, Mass: The rhetoric surrounding David Petraeus’ fall from grace has been nothing short of epic. The tawdry affair of the general and the biographer has assumed the proportions of a Shakespearea...

Islamic banking influencing North American institutions

RIYADH: While Shariah-compliant banking is not widespread in the United States, Islamic financial institutions are making headway in gaining a foothold in North American banks to bring services to customers.“I have no doubt that investment in a purely Islamic-compliant banking is growing in the US, ...

The power of reading

Why is it important to read? So much is directly or indirectly attached to reading that one does not have the ability to consider all those aspects at once. However, the most important of all these, is education. Reading has the ability to change one’s thinking pattern, change one’s mindset toward...

Dust Clouds, Delays Thwart Indian $1.4 Billion Solar Plan

India, planning $1.4 billion of solar-thermal power stations, expects half of the projects to be delayed and some to be scrapped as U.S. supplies stall and dust- clouds diffuse the radiation required to drive generation.Of the 500 megawatts of projects due to be completed in February and May, only a...

Afghanistan halts Helmand police fuel supplies after major theft

Cut to fuel supply after theft estimated at £380m risks ability of police to operate in Taliban stronghold Garmser: Senior Afghan officials are said to have discovered large-scale theft of fuel in Helmand and halted all deliveries to police in the province, compromising the ability of the force to ...

«Previous