Ron Synovitz is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL.
November 20, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The U.S. military wants to nearly double its funding to train and equip Pakistan's Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force with members who are the same ethnicity as pro-Taliban tribal fighters near the border with Afghanistan.
Dignitaries attend funeral services for the six lawmakers killed in the attack (Pajhwak Afghan News) November 19, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- An internal UN report from Afghanistan says many people who were killed early this month when a suicide bomber attacked a group of Afghan lawmakers appear to have been shot dead by bodyguards after the blast.
Afghan citizens have been complaining for years about corruption, saying nothing can be done without paying bribes to officials. But, with some harsh words from President Karzai, is the government now beginning to listen?
Sufism, a mystic tradition in Islam, is increasingly popular in Iran. But recent clashes between Sufis and security forces have highlighted Sufism's uneasy relationship with the authorities, in a country where conservative Shi'a clerics have called it a deviation of Islam.
Pakistani and Afghan authorities have repeatedly accused each other of failing to prevent cross-border suicide attacks by Taliban-linked militants. A recent UN report suggests that the crisis won't be resolved as long as both sides persist in blaming the other.
Speculation is rife about who carried out a bomb attack in northern Afghanistan that killed six members of the Afghan parliament and at least 35 other people. And there are fears that violence could escalate and widen rifts between rival factional militia groups in the north.
As attention focuses on the battle against the Taliban in the south and east, a different dynamic is lingering in the north. There, ethnic militias are reportedly using the Taliban threat as a pretext to hoard weapons and assert their authority.
The blasts that killed more than 130 people in Karachi on October 18, aimed at former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, were a dramatic example of how security in Pakistan and Afghanistan is inextricably linked.
October 16, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Afghanistan this week is hosting an international governmental conference for the first time in decades.
October 11, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Afghanistan's central government today is denying reports that it traded Taliban prisoners for a German hostage who was freed on October 10 after being held by Taliban kidnappers for more than two months.
Financing is in place and construction is expected to begin soon on the last remaining section of the "Ring Road," a highway that loops the rugged mountain terrain and sparsely populated countryside to connect major cities.
Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan have seen a sharp increase in suicide attacks during the past six months. But as militants train more suicide bombers, some recruits are having second thoughts.
The U.S. military is launching an intensified effort to stop what it says is Iranian support for insurgents in Iraq. U.S. forces are building a forward-operations base in Iraq just a few kilometers from the border with Iran.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has vowed to retaliate against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for the killing of a radical cleric during a raid on Islamabad's Red Mosque in July. The threat comes amid a political crisis that has weakened Musharraf just weeks before parliament is to appoint the country's next president.
Washington has complained to Beijing about Chinese weapons shipments to Iran that appear to be turning up in the hands of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
August 31, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The negotiations that led to the release this week of 19 South Korean hostages are being described by some Western politicians as a "triumph" for the Taliban.
Afghanistan's first all-women's national soccer team is attracting attention during matches in Pakistan.
Amid reports of a possible cease-fire declared by rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, close allies say it's a fake and insist his armed opposition continues.
In the aftermath of the Red Mosque crisis, President Pervez Musharraf has renewed his pledge to prevent any mosque or madrasah from being used by terrorists.
President Putin has suspended Russian participation in the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty, a pact that is considered a pillar of European security and stability.
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