Home » Afghanistan
MPs Accused of Having Ties to Armed Groups
October 19, 2011
KABUL - Lawmakers from eastern Nangarhar province on Tuesday accused some of their colleagues and former jihadi leaders of having links with illegal armed groups blamed for insecurity and corruption.
Senate Chairman FazlHadiMuslimyar told the upper house people of the eastern province had told him that a number of illegal armed had ...
Afghan Fiscal Year to Start from January: WJ
October 18, 2011
KABUL - With a majority vote, the Wolesi Jirga (WJ) - lower house of Parliament -- on Monday decided that Afghanistan's fiscal year start from January instead of April.
The decision was taken to avoid non-execution of development projects due to delays in approval of the annual budget by Parliament, a lawmaker told Pajhwok Afghan News.
MP Sadiq Ahmad Usmani, who is also member of the Wolesi Jirga Finance ...
NATO to Give ANSF 166 Aircraft
October 18, 2011
KABUL - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will provide 145 multi-type airplanes and 21 helicopters to Afghan National Security Force (ANSF), an official said on Monday.
Addressing a press conference in Kabul, the commander of the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A) said the coalition would procure ...
WJ EU Friendship Group Meets EU Delegation
October 18, 2011
KABUL - The European Union's Deputy Secretary General Maciej Popowski commenced his visit to Afghanistan on Monday, October 17, 2011 in meeting with members of the EU's Friendship Group of the Afghan Parliament. Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Popowski said "I am delighted to ...
CIS Must Decide on Transit Centre After NATO Pullout From Afghan
October 18, 2011
MOSCOW - Kyrgyz Acting Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov Monday said the Commonwealth of Independent States(CIS) countries must decide on further presence of the transit center, the former US air base in Kyrgyzstan, if ...
Abdullah Warns of Turmoil When America Withdraws
October 18, 2011
KABUL - A round of suicide bombings in the northern Panshjer Valley of Afghanistan over the weekend drew little notice in a country saturated by violence, but to former Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah it was ominous confirmation that the Taliban is ...
China Mining Giant Tapped for Afghan Rail Project
October 18, 2011
KABUL - Afghanistan's mining minister says the China Metallurgical Group Corp. has been selected to carry out technical studies for two proposed rail lines in the ...
9mln Afghans Live in Extreme Poverty: Rahimi
Monday October 17
KABUL - Nearly nine million Afghans are living in extreme poverty due to a lack of investment in the country's agriculture sector, a minister said on Sunday.
"Due to the past three decades of war, investment in the agriculture sector has dropped by 43 percent," Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Minister Mohammad Asif Rahimi told a gathering marking the World Food Day in Kabul.
The minister said the price of rice increased ...
Germany will not Abandon Afghanistan:Wulff
October 17, 2011
KABUL - Germany will remain a loyal ally of Afghanistan, but also expects the country to do its utmost to stamp out terrorism in the region, said German President Christian Wulff during a visit to the country Sunday. 'Afghanistan and the international community can not shy away from ...
Media Played Up Pakistan Attacks: Karzai
October 17, 2011
KABUL - President Hamid Karzai on Sunday said most media reports about Pakistan's missile strikes into Afghanistan were exaggerated.
His government would take concrete steps in case of any threat to Afghanistan's territorial integrity, the president told a joint news conference with his German ...
Karzai Calls on Traders to Help ARCS
October 17, 2011
KABUL - President Hamid Karzai on Sunday praised the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) for assistance to the needy and requested traders, industrialists and investors to donate aid to the organization. Reading out Karzai's message on the ARCS special week at a ceremony ...
ISAF Investigates Rocket Attacks from Pakistan
October 17, 2011
KABUL - ISAF said on Sunday that it is investigating continued missile attacks from Pakistani soil into Afghanistan, and stressed that talks must occur before any "appropriate action" is taken.
ISAF spokesman General Carsten Jacobson said that the organization is still trying to confirm whether it is the Pakistani army that is firing ...
Taliban Did Not Kill Wali Karzai: NATO
October 17, 2011
KABUL - The man who killed the influential half brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai three months ago carried out the attack for personal reasons and was not a Taliban fighter, a senior NATO official said on ...
Balkh Security Improved After Transition: Noor
October 17, 2011
MAZAR-I-SHARIF - Balkh Governor Atta Mohammad Noor on Sunday claimed the security situation in the province has improved since local forces took over the security responsibility from their foreign counterparts.
Speaking at a joint press conference with members of the Meshrano Jirga's Defense Commission, Noor said there had been no problem so far ...
2 Girls’ Schools Set on Fire in Nangarhar
October 17, 2011
JALALABAD - Suspected militants stormed two girls' schools in the Batikot district of eastern Nangarhar province, destroying one and partially damaging the other, officials said on Sunday.
The schools were set on fire in Chahardi and Barikab areas late on Saturday night, district chief, Israrullah Qarizada, told ...
School Buildings Inaugurated in Kabul
October 17, 2011
KABUL - Newly-constructed buildings for two schools were inaugurated in the 13th police district of the capital Kabul on Sunday, an official said.
The Japanese-funded project cost $ 615,000 and took one year to complete, said Amanullah Iman, the Education Ministry ...
$51m Bailout for Banking Sector Approved
October 16, 2011
KABUL - The Wolesi Jirga on Saturday approved $51 million (about 2,430 million Afghanis) for the central bank to help it overcome a financial crisis and $20 million for a railway line project.
The amount for the central bank was approved after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stopped an expected $70 million reconstruction payment to Afghanistan due to concerns about lax financial oversight.
Previously, Parliament had refused to okay a $73 million bailout ...
US Determined to Eliminate Haqqani
October 16, 2011
KABUL - The Obama administration is going after the Haqqani network in a more aggressive manner, launching a new round of strikes to target and dismantle the group responsible for bulk of insurgent attacks in Afghanistan, US officials said.
The Haqqani network, which is based in Pakistan's tribal areas, has ...
Turkmen President Attaches Special Importance to Afghanistan’s Revival
October 16, 2011
ASHGHABAD - Turkmenistan attaches particular importance to the revival of Afghanistan and the establishment of lasting peace and harmony in the Afghan land, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov was quoted by the local media on Saturday. A governmental meeting has been recently held in ...
82 Insurgents Reportedly Killed, Dozens Detained
October 16, 2011
KABUL - Eighty-two rebels were killed and dozens detained in a series of security operations in different provinces over the past 24 hours, officials said on Saturday.
Featuring Afghan Nation Police (ANP), Afghan National Army (ANA) and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) members, the operations ...
Each Poppy-Free Province to Get $1m
October 16, 2011
KABUL - The Ministry of Counter Narcotics (MCN) has allocated one million dollars for each of the 17 provinces that were declared poppy-free this year, an official announced on Saturday.
The development assistance will go to the provinces, where poppy ...
U.S. Base Assaulted in Panjsher
October 16, 2011
KABUL - Militants tried to blast their way into an American base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, striking before dawn with rocket-propelled grenades and a vehicle packed with explosives.
The attackers failed to breach the gate of the base in Panjsher province's Rakha district, though they did hit a security tower with a ...
MPs Assail Police for Dismantling Barakzai Tent
October 16, 2011
KABUL - A number of Wolesi Jirga members on Saturday condemned police for dismantling the tent where an ousted woman lawmaker observed a 12-day hunger strike.
Police on Thursday removed the tent of Samin Barakzai in front of Parliament and took the 32 years old to Sardar Daud Khan Hospital. She ...
Latest Drone Strike Kills 5 in Waziristan
October 16, 2011
ISLAMABAD - Five suspected militants were killed when a US drone fired several missiles into Pakistan's lawless tribal region of south Waziristan, near the Afghanistan border, officials said on Saturday.
The CIA-operated drone fired nine missiles hitting a compound in the ...
32 Tons of Spurious Drugs Destroyed
October 16, 2011
KABUL - Thirty-two tons of substandard and expired medicines were buried in central Kabul province on Saturday, the acting public health minister ...
Pakistan Has A Big Stake in Afghan Outcome: US
October 15, 2011
WASHINGTON - Pakistan has a huge stake in the outcome of the Afghan conflict, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday, underscoring that the US could not dispense with its relationship with Islamabad, which must be part of the Afghan solution. "Everybody knows Pakistan has a big stake in the outcome of what goes on across their border, and they are going to be involved one way or the ...
Kayani Meets Allen, Pak- Afghan Border Issues Discussed
October 15, 2011
RAWALPINDI - General John Allen, Commander International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) called on Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on Thursday. The visiting dignitary remained with him for some time and discussed measures aimed at improving cross border coordination and procedures ...
Karimov to Attend International Meetings on Afghanistan
October 15, 2011
BAKU - Uzbek President Islam Karimov has agreed to attend two international conferences on Afghanistan later this year, Radio Liberty report on Friday. Karimov met on October 11 with visiting U.S. and German special representatives on Afghanistan - Marc Grossman and Michael ...
Bamyan is the First Province to Undertake Large Scale Survey
October 15, 2011
BAMYAN - The Central Statistics Organization of Afghanistan (CSO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Thursday completed data collection in Bamyan province for Socio-Demographic & Economic Survey (SDES). Over 500 residents of Bamyan have been employed and trained to become data collectors for what will be a large-scale ...
India, Afghanistan Sign Capacity Development MoU
October 15, 2011
NEW DEHLI - Afghanistan and India on Wednesday entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for implementation of a twinning arrangement for public sector capacity development in Afghanistan. The signing of the treaty follows the high profile visit of President Hamid Karzai last week, when the two nations forged a strategic partnership ...
Afghanistan Benefits to Build Relations in the Region: Grossman
October 15, 2011
KABUL - US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman during a visit to India on Wednesday said the more Afghanistan builds relations with regional countries the more it ends up beneficial to the country. During his visit to New Delhi, Grossman met with a number of senior Indian officials, including India's Foreign Secretary Ranjan ...
Russia Supports Extension of ISAF Mandate in Afghanistan
October 15, 2011
MOSCOW - Russia has backed the UN Security Council's decision to extend the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. "We believe that the extension of the ISAF mandate will facilitate stabilization in the country in close cooperation with the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, advancement ...
US Open to Afghan Peace Deal Including Haqqani
October 13, 2011
WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday signaled the United States remains open to exploring a peace deal including the Haqqani network, the militant group that US officials blame for a campaign of high-profile violence that could jeopardize Washington's plans for withdrawing smoothly from Afghanistan.
'Where we are right now is that we view the Haqqanis and other of their ilk as, you know, being adversaries and being very dangerous to ...
UNSC Extends Authorization of ISAF Presence
October 13, 2011
UNITED NATIONS - The Security Council on Wednesday extended the authorization of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan for one more year, until October 13, 2012, and welcomed steps taken to gradually transfer lead role in the security sector to ...
Barakzai’s Case to Be Investigated: Karzai
October 13, 2011
KABUL - President Hamid Karzai, through Wolesi Jirga's speaker, has asked female lawmaker Samin Barakzai, who has been on hunger strike for more than a week, to choose two representatives to investigate her case, Ibrahimi said on Wednesday.
Semin Barakzai, 32 years old from the western Herat province, had won ...