Feature / Analysis

Petraeus biographer made trips to Afghanistan

About four years ago, Paula Broadwell began her Ph.D. dissertation on Gen. David Petraeus' innovative leadership skills. Some of the interviews were done via e-mail. Others were conducted as Broadwell occasionally ran with the physically fit four-star, including one time with Petraeus and his team...

Afghan Artist, Admired Around the World, Yearns for Acceptance at Home

KABUL, Afghanistan: The past is a foreign country to Abdul Wasi Hamdard, one where they did things differently and he was an artist full of promise. On the face of it, that past was hardly to be envied: he fled the modern-art-hating Taliban in 1996 and joined a few million of his fellow Afghans as...

Helping our Teenagers Live and Not Die

Recent days have shown our media highlight several cases of youngsters resorting to taking their own precious lives. And obviously with it has followed a wave of panic among the sensitive individuals. Successive cases in the news over days, led many to blame the subsequent suicides to those being s...

The Glut of Tattooing

Tattooing has been in practice for centuries among various cultures all over the world. Its history dates back to the primitive times when man didn’t do anything but tattooed his body. Tattoo culture is admired and accepted in several parts of the world mainly in America, Europe and other advanced c...

The Case for Micro-Financing

A report released last month by the World Bank unearthed evidence that less than 25% of Pakistani women use micro-finance loans. The report takes a closer look at two challenges facing the micro-finance sector in Pakistan. The first is the potentially widespread practice of women borrowers acting as...

US Presidential Election and Lessons for Pakistan’s Politicians

US elections are just over with Barack Obama winning his second term as President. It does not matter who wins & sits in the White House since the policies of that nation does not change with change in personality like us. The US political power system is built on such strong checks and balance meth...

The future of Afghan women

Afghani Barakzai is a Rumsfeld visiting fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. In Afghanistan, she manages the office and special projects at the Central Asia Development Group. The group, which is funded by the U.S. Agen...

4 Members of Afghan Police Are Found Guilty in Rape

KABUL, Afghanistan: Before a packed courtroom in the capital, a judicial panel on Wednesday found four members of the Afghan Local Police guilty of involvement in the rape of a sheep herder’s daughter in a case that tested the judicial system’s ability to hold the controversial force accountable. ...

As 'insider attacks' grow, so does U.S.-Afghanistan divide

Suspicion and resentment are rife amid the deadly attacks on U.S. troops from within the ranks of the Afghan security personnel they're training. KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: Army Spc. Steve Beaty was on alert for signs of danger, well aware of a surge in attacks on U.S. troops by Afghans wearing police ...

Two Views of Officer Emerge in Afghan Case

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash: Prosecutors in the Army’s case against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is accused of murdering 16 civilians in Afghanistan this year, have portrayed him as a rogue agent in the Army’s midst, a methodical slaughterer who was rational and conscious of his guilt. But a de...

Football Fever in the Hindu Kush

Heading out to the stadium for a soccer game, our correspondent wonders whether the battle for Afghanistan might be won on the playing fields of Kabul. While it’s not yet “Morning in Afghanistan” by any stretch of the imagination, sometimes you can see things there that give you faith in the countr...

Julian Assange Labels Obama 'a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing'

-- WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange has described re-elected President Barack Obama as a "wolf in sheep's clothing" and says he expects the US government to keep attacking the anti-secrecy website. Speaking by phone from Ecuador's London embassy, where he sought asylum in June in a bid to avoid ex...

Revealed: Climate change led to decline of Maya civilization

One of the world’s great civilizations was forced into terminal decline by successive dry periods culminating in a prolonged drought, according to a study that throws fresh light on the mysterious disappearance of the Maya in Central America around 1,100AD.Scholars have long wondered about the circu...

NATO Backs Freedom of Speech Over Think Tank Expulsion

The European-based think tank in the Afghan President's sights for possible expulsion from Afghanistan has not received any official word from the government, while the NATO chief has come out in defense of it. International Crisis Group (ICG), which published a damning report on the state of Afgh...

Rasmussen: 'We will not abandon Afghanistan'

NATO will end its combat mission by the end of 2014 as planned, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told DW. International forces will, however, continue to offer support. You will serve as NATO secretary general until summer 2014. A couple of months later, the last NATO combat soldier wi...

Pakistani militants hiding in Afghanistan

The Taliban leader who sparked international outrage by ordering the attack on a Pakistani schoolgirl last month has escaped retribution by hiding in a section of eastern Afghanistan where U.S. forces are already spread thin and focused on other targets, according to U.S. officials. U.S. military ...

Afghanistan rules out peace deals with Haqqanis

KABUL: Afghanistan welcomes the United Nations' decision to impose sanctions on the Haqqani network and would not negotiate for peace with the group blamed for several high-profile attacks in the country, the presidential spokesman said on Tuesday. On Monday the U.N. Security Council's Taliban san...

With election day set, many Afghans doubt vote will be fair

KABUL: Now that Afghanistan’s election commission has set a date for the next presidential poll, the difficult work of preparing for a vote in a rural, mountainous country still at war begins. Many Afghans are skeptical the election can be free and fair amid the possibility of violence, fraud and ev...

Continuity or change?

Why did the army chief need to issue the enigmatic statement on our state of institutional affairs with an attempt to draw some red lines for those asking awkward questions? Was he simply sharing his resolve to foster progressive change while acknowledging the past mistakes of the khakis? Was he pro...

British Have Invaded Nine Out of Ten Countries

Britain has invaded all but 22 countries in the world in its long and colorful history, new research has found. Every schoolboy used to know that at the height of the empire; almost a quarter of the atlas was colored pink, showing the extent of British rule. But that oft recited fact dramatically ...

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