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Afghanistan

Two Germans missing in Afghanistan

Two Germans are missing in Afghanistan, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Tuesday, adding that it’s possible “they have become victims of a kidnapping.”
Westerwelle declined to provide more information on the identities of the two Germans.
The German Foreign Ministry and the German Embassy in Kabul are working with Afghan authorities to locate the missing Germans, [...]

Read More » No commentAugust 25, 2011

Afghan election commission expels 9 lawmakers

The Afghan election commission on Sunday expelled nine lawmakers who faced election fraud allegations.
A special court set up by President Hamid Karzai had been prosecuting alleged electoral fraud by 62 parliament members. The nine were among them.
The election commission announced the expulsions Sunday, four days after the special court was dissolved.
For months, Afghanistan has been [...]

Read More » No commentAugust 24, 2011

NATO investigates deadly Afghan helicopter crash

(Reuters) – NATO tried to determine on Sunday if Taliban insurgents had shot down a troop-carrying helicopter in Afghanistan, killing 38 in the largest loss of life suffered by foreign forces in a single incident in 10 years of war.
In a bloody two days for foreign forces, another four NATO troops were killed in two [...]

Read More » No commentAugust 8, 2011

Think tank warns: No Afghan stability without overhaul of aid programs

Washington (CNN) — As the 10-year anniversary of September 11, 2001, approaches, a major think tank is warning the decade-long effort in Afghanistan has failed to stabilize the country and will continue to falter without a major overhaul in international assistance.
In a report released Thursday, the International Crisis Group says that strategies have focused too [...]

Read More » No commentAugust 5, 2011

Ex-Afghan spy chief details hunt for bin Laden, 10-year war

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — Afghan spies had intelligence leads four years ago that pointed to an area close to where Osama bin Laden was hiding, according to Afghanistan’s former spy chief.
But Pervez Musharraf — then Pakistan’s president — refused to take action despite receiving detailed reports, said Amrullah Saleh.
CNN cannot independently confirm Saleh’s account and [...]

Read More » No commentAugust 4, 2011

Japan reporter tricked captors into using Twitter

TOKYO – A Japanese journalist held hostage in Afghanistan for five months managed to send out a message via Twitter that he was alive when his captors asked him how to use a cell phone.
Just days before he was freed, Kosuke Tsuneoka said one of the militants brought him his new cell [...]

Read More » No commentSeptember 9, 2010

As US fights, China spends to gain Afghan foothold

KABUL, Afghanistan – Gul Akbar’s tiny store is crammed from floor to ceiling with rolls of electric cables, plugs of all sizes and piles of extension cords. Virtually everything comes from China, as do most of the appliances and electronics being sold in Kabul’s busy Nader Pashtun Market.
Not far away, the [...]

Read More » No commentJuly 4, 2010

S.Korean workers in Afghanistan in rocket attack

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korean civilian workers in Afghanistan have come under rocket attack but no one was hurt, the foreign ministry said Thursday.
The attack was launched early Thursday near a construction site in the northern province of Parwan where the South’s provincial reconstruction team is to be based, a spokesman [...]

Read More » No commentJuly 2, 2010

Afghan’s Karzai to discuss aid with Japan PM

TOKYO (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai was to meet the leaders of Japan, a major aid donor, for talks Thursday on improving security and fighting corruption in his war-torn country.
Japan was expected to stress that it wants to see better governance and less graft in the bitterly poor central Asian [...]

Read More » No commentJune 17, 2010

Japan reporter held by Taliban in OK health: media

TOKYO (AFP) – A Japanese journalist missing in northern Afghanistan since late March has said that he is being held by the Taliban but is in good health, a newspaper reported Thursday.
“I am in good health. I don’t have any injuries,” Kosuke Tsuneoka, 40, was quoted as telling the Mainichi Shimbun, [...]

Read More » No commentJune 17, 2010