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NEWS ABOUT: Kabul

Afghanistan Quarantines Its Lone Pig

(Newser) - Kabul Zoo officials have locked up the only known pig in Afghanistan to allay visitors' fears that it might spread swine flu, Reuters reports. Pork is illegal in Afghanistan for religious reasons; the country’s lone porcine resident is a zoo animal. “For now, the pig is under quarantine,... More »

Karzai Takes Ex-Warlords as Afghan Running Mates

Qasim Fahim held the post until 2004

(Newser) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai tapped a former mujahedeen warlord as one of his two vice-presidential candidates today, the New York Times reports. Muhammad Qasim Fahim was Karzai’s vice president from the beginning of his administration through 2004, and still holds sway with political parties made up of former guerrillas.... More »

US Envoy Visits Pakistan, Afghanistan Amid Violence

(Newser) - Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, arrived in the region yesterday as waves of killings were washing over both countries, the BBC reports. While touring Pakistan’s volatile frontier region, a local official was killed by a roadside bomb. At the same time in... More »

Gunmen Kill 19 in Kabul Attacks

(Newser) - Gunmen launched coordinated suicide attacks on three government buildings in Afghanistan’s capital today, killing at least 19 and injuring more than 50, the BBC reports. Attackers armed with AK-47s, grenades, and in some cases explosive vests hit the prison directorate and the justice and education ministries. The Taliban claimed... More »

Power Returns to Kabul, but Bribes Persist

Deal boosts electricity access, business in struggling Afghan capital

(Newser) - For the first time since the fall of the Taliban, the glow of light hangs over Kabul late into the night, GlobalPost reports. An energy deal with Uzbekistan is bringing unprecedented access to electricity to the Afghan capital, where most neighborhoods only had power for about four hours every second... More »

Kidnap Rise Adds to Afghan Woes Awaiting Obama

Obama faces an increasingly challenging scenario as government falters in Kabul

(Newser) - A rash of kidnappings has struck Afghanistan, a symptom of the deteriorating security situation there, writes Masha Hamilton in Salon. Kabul is no longer viewed as a safe haven as the Taliban and criminal gangs seize foreigners and Afghans alike—sometimes for ideological reasons, often just for a ransom payment.... More »

Bush Stops in Afghanistan; Vows Support

Pledges continued US support

(Newser) - Five hours after his final visit to the country that defined his presidency, President Bush landed in Afghanistan this morning for an unsurprising surprise visit on his farewell tour. After a pre-dawn rally with US troops, the president renewed his support of the fledgling democracy in a meeting with President... More »

US Focus in Afghanistan Shifts to Kabul

Some 3,500 troops will guard capital region

(Newser) - January’s US troop deployments in Afghanistan will focus on areas near Kabul, reflecting rising security concerns about the capital, the New York Times reports. The move marks the first time large numbers of troops will be deployed to regions south of the city. The 3,500 to 4,000... More »

Kabul Blast Kills 4 Near US Embassy

Suicide car bombers struck as Westerners gathered for Thanksgiving run

(Newser) - At least four Afghans were killed when a suicide car bomber struck 200 yards outside the American embassy in Kabul this morning, AP reports. The embassy said none of its personnel was injured in the blast, which happened as Americans and other Westerners were entering the embassy compound for a... More »

Freed Reporter Held in Cave Underground

But Canadian journalist says Afghan captors did not harm her

(Newser) - Canadian officials secured the release yesterday of a reporter who was kept in an underground cave in Afghanistan for a month, CNN reports. Melissa Fung said her abductors bound her hands and feet, but that she was never mistreated. Afghan authorities arrested three people in the case and are looking... More »

Taliban Govern Large Areas of Afghanistan

Residents turning to Taliban 'rulers' to settle criminal, civil disputes

(Newser) - The Taliban is regaining significant ground in Afghanistan, running a harsh but effective parallel government that wields more power than the official administration, reports the Observer. Taliban influence has spread as far as the outskirts of Kabul, and is firmly entrenched in large parts of the south and east. More »

Afghanistan's Insurgency Endures

Attacks highlight security decline

(Newser) - The insurgency in Afghanistan is mushrooming, and targeting the refurbished highway that provides a weak connection between the country's ethnic halves, the New York Times reports. A series of deadly attacks in June has exposed the tribulations of the United States' 6-year-old effort to defeat the Taliban. More »

Pakistan Aided Kabul Embassy Attack: US

Messages between militants and spy agency intercepted

(Newser) - American intelligence has determined that members of Pakistan's powerful spy agency helped to plan July's bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul, reports the New York Times. US authorities based their findings on intercepted messages between the attackers and Pakistani intelligence officers. American officials also obtained new evidence that the... More »

Taliban Targets Attacks for Maximum Panic in Kabul

Incapable of large strikes, insurgents aim to strike fear into populace

(Newser) - Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan lack the firepower to spark a massive attack, but they’re doing their best to wage psychological warfare on Kabul, Newsweek reports. Creating a sense of instability through frequent small-scale attacks, “we can create panic and undermine the last vestiges of support for the regime,... More »

Obama Declares Afghanistan 'Precarious and Urgent'

Candidate pledges more US troops

(Newser) - Calling the situation in Afghanistan "precarious and urgent," Barack Obama today urged the Bush administration to make Afghanistan—rather than Iraq—"the central front in our battle against terrorism." In his first interview since arriving in the country yesterday, the Democratic candidate told Lara Logan on... More »

Obama Meets Afghan Prez

Candidate lunches with the leader he criticized a week ago

(Newser) - World-touring Barack Obama sat down with Hamid Karzai today, joining the Afghan president for lunch at his Kabul palace. Although Obama criticized the leader's government as recently as last week, he expected to steer clear of arguments in today's meeting, Reuters reports. "I'm more interested in listening than doing... More »

Kabul Bomb Kills 41 at Indian Embassy

Deadliest attack this year in Afghan capital

(Newser) - A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside the Indian embassy in Kabul today, killing 41 people and injuring 141. Several diplomats were among the dead, as well as children, security guards and visa seekers on the crowded street in the Afghan capital, reports CNN. The huge blast was the... More »

Afghan Sex Trade Thrives Despite Taboos

900 foreigners hustle in Kabul brothels, but locals do it secretly

(Newser) - Sex is selling in Afghanistan despite Islamic laws that make prostitution punishable by death, the AP reports. At least 900 women do it in Kabul, but residents admit only to brothels full of Chinese prostitutes; to be a native Afghan hooker is "very, very bad," one expert said.... More »

In Afghanistan, Laura Bush Urges Support

Int'l community dare not pull out during 'crucial' Taliban uprising

(Newser) - During an unannounced visit to Kabul today, Laura Bush urged the international community not to pull support from Afghanistan, highlighting successes in reconstruction and improved women’s rights, Reuters reports. The first lady's visit came even as Afghan, US, and NATO forces fight to contain a Taliban guerilla war in... More »

Al-Qaeda Involved in Karzai Shooting Plot: Kabul

Taliban, Pakistani militants gain strength

(Newser) - The Afghan government today implicated al-Qaeda in the botched Sunday shooting attempt on President Hamid Karzai, the New York Times reports. Security forces captured or killed several suspects linked to the assassination plot. Among them was a man with links to militant commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, who is based in Pakistan’... More »

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