WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Retired U.S. Navy medic Charlie Anderson twice thought about committing suicide: once when he feared he would be sent back to Iraq in 2004 and again last year when a friend and fellow veteran killed himself. “I can’t say that I can’t go because we don’t do …

ROME, March 28 (Reuters) – Italian opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi may have scored an “own goal” by not supporting an Afghan peace mission in a Senate vote which, instead of showing how weak the government is, split the centre right in two. Berlusconi’s coalition, ousted by Romano Prodi’s alliance last …

GURBUZ, Afghanistan – Government officials in this town in Khost province refer to the cross-border operations simply as “Suicide, Inc”, a sophisticated joint venture between al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Young Arab, Pakistani and Afghan bombers strapped with increasingly potent bombs aim for softer and softer civilian targets, both Afghan and …

Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate conservatives and the Bush administration are taking aim at billions of dollars of non-war spending added to President Bush’s $100 billion funding request for Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition to money and equipment for overseas troops, there is $100 million for state and …

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Australian David Hicks has grown his hair to chest-length so he can use it to cover his eyes from the lights that shine in his Guantanamo prison cell all night, one of his lawyers said.Hicks believes he will be convicted at his …

Tribesmen in Pakistan’s tribal region bordering Afghanistan have promised not to shelter foreign militants.The assurance came as part of a deal signed by the government and local tribes in Bajaur agency. Unlike other controversial deals in the troubled Waziristan region nearby, this deal was with tribesmen not militants. The government …

In this exclusive report for the ‘IoS’, three members of the Taliban waging war on British troops in Afghanistan tell Chris Sands why they feel they have no choice but to take up arms against the ‘foreign invaders’ When Zahir Jan set out on the journey from his home in …

ROME // Italy’s strategy of negotiating the release of Taliban militants in exchange for an Italian hostage in Afghanistan has put Premier Romano Prodi under fire days before a crucial parliamentary vote on keeping the country’s troops in Afghanistan.The move has drawn the ire of conservative opponents – whose backing …

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says if the Congress does not approve additional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by mid-April, without special conditions, the department will have to make cuts that could affect troop training and deployments.  VOA’s Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon. Secretary Gates began …

UNITED NATIONS, March 22: The United Nations drug Czar said on Wednesday that corruption must be stamped out and borders strengthened to run emerging Afghan drug cartels out of business, particularly in the new ‘Golden Triangle’ of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.