BEHIND THE LINES: In the southwest, the outside powers of relevance are Iran and Russia. The arrangement in place from July 2018 until now was the product of an uneasy standoff between them. In a new ceasefire agreement that may bring an end to a 75-day Assad-regime siege on the …

Pashtun practices include circumcision on the eighth day and refraining from mixing meat and milk — Is there a connection to ancient Hebrews? With the fall of Kabul into the hands of the Taliban just shy of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the world’s attention has once …

The Taliban announced their caretaker cabinet 24 days after taking control of Kabul, but more than half of the cabinet members are on the UN sanction’s list. The Taliban seized capital Kabul on August 15 hours before President Ghani fled the country and they are now in full control of …