GENEVA (Reuters) – The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan drove up the number of world refugees for a second straight year in 2007, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said there were 11.4 million refugees under its responsibility at the end of 2007, …
Read More »More than 15 Taliban killed in Afghan prisoner hunt
KABUL (Reuters) – U.S-led and Afghan forces killed more than 15 insurgents in a search for hundreds of prisoners, including Taliban, who broke out of jail after comrades blew up the gates, the U.S. military said on Sunday.
Read More »Afghanistan conference to raise cash and set strategy
PARIS (Reuters) – Ministers will pledge funds for Afghanistan and review their development strategy for the fragile Central Asian state at a donors conference which got underway in Paris on Thursday. More than six years after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban regime that sheltered al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, …
Read More »FACTBOX: Breakdown of troop numbers in Afghanistan
(Reuters) – Afghanistan meets international donors on Thursday in Paris, where President Hamid Karzai will ask for $50 billion to fund a development plan that his government has drawn up. Here is a breakdown of current national deployments within the 40-nation NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, which …
Read More »Britain pledges $1.17 billion in Afghan aid
PARIS (Reuters) – Britain will provide about 600 million pounds ($1.17 billion) in reconstruction aid to Afghanistan through 2012/2013, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Thursday. “In the period up to 2012/13, the U.K. will be committing about 600 million pounds to the Afghan reconstruction effort,” Miliband told reporters …
Read More »U.N. envoy to raise Afghan, Iraqi killings with U.S.
GENEVA (Reuters) – A U.N. human rights investigator making an official visit to the United States later this month said on Wednesday that he would raise allegations of American troops killing Afghan and Iraqi civilians. Philip Alston, United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said he would …
Read More »Hunger, water scarcity displaces thousands of Afghans
KABUL (Reuters) – Thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes due to food and water shortages in northern Afghanistan, the government said on Wednesday. Many parts of Afghanistan did not receive enough rain and snow this year, increasing concern the country may face drought again, amid global …
Read More »Suicide attack on NATO kills 2 Afghan children
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A suspected Taliban suicide car bomber rammed a convoy of NATO-led forces in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing two Afghan children and wounding three alliance soldiers, police officers said.
Read More »Missile fired at house in NW Pakistan: residents
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – At least one missile was fired at a house next to a mosque in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, almost completely destroying the building but killing no one, a resident of the area said. Security officials said they had no information about any blasts in a village …
Read More »One soldier dead, 6 wounded in Afghan suicide blast
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber killed one foreign soldier and wounded six other people, including three civilians, in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar on Saturday, the provincial governor said. The Taliban have vowed to step up their campaign of suicide bombings this year, after carrying out …
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