KABUL (Reuters) – Long-awaited peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban were expected to start in Qatar within a week once the final batch of Taliban prisoners were released, the U.S. special envoy and Afghan government sources said on ... More »
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Afghan security forces laid siege to a prison seized by Islamic State fighters in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Monday, with at least 29 people killed after the militants’ overnight assault led to a mass jailbreak. More th... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – More than 300 prisoners were at large on Monday after an attack by Islamic State on an Afghan prison, the governor’s spokesman said on Monday, as clashes continued between prisoners and security forces. The assault began on Sunday night on th... More »
HERAT (Reuters) – In the eastern Afghan city of Herat, 18-year-old high school student Somaya Faruqi adjusts a suction cap as she puts the finishing touches before unveiling a low-cost, lightweight ventilator created by her and six other young women. The all-f... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said on Friday he is now getting intelligence briefings, and has been told Russia continues to try to meddle in November’s U.S. election. China also was conducting activities “designed f... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to ban Huawei from Britain’s 5G network in a landmark decision that will anger Beijing but win plaudits from President Donald Trump as the United States grapples with China’s rising economic and technologi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was never briefed about the reported Russian efforts to pay bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan, blasting a New York Times report on the bounties. “Nobody brief... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House sought to play down reports it knew Russia had paid the Taliban bounties to kill U.S. troops, promising to brief Democrats on Tuesday after being accused of only sharing information with President Donald Trump’s fellow Re... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Both Democrats and President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress demanded more information from the White House on Monday after reports that Russian military intelligence offered militants bounties for killing U.S. troops in Af... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two Democratic senators on Monday asked U.S. Defense Secretary Mike Esper what happened to $1 billion in aid for Afghanistan the Trump administration said it would cut nearly three months ago, according to a letter reviewed by Reuters. S... More »
(Reuters) – Protests against racism triggered by the death of African American George Floyd have inspired art around the world, from murals in Syria and Pakistan to graffiti in Nairobi. At the Berlin Wall, a large portrait of Floyd is seen alongside yellow blo... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – A group of artists climbed ladders up one of the many blast walls snaking through the Afghan capital Kabul this week to paint a mural of George Floyd in solidarity with the anti-racism protests kindled by his death in police custody. Floyd, a... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – The United Nations said Afghan civilian casualties jumped to 380 in April, expressing alarm about a “striking deterioration” in respect for international humanitarian law as the United States withdraws troops and attempts to usher in a peace ... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Gunmen attacked a hospital in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday where the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders runs a maternity clinic, officials said. There was no immediate information about any casualties in ... More »
(Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on Tuesday said it would expand its App Store, Apple Music and other services to dozens of new markets in Africa, the Middle East and beyond in the biggest geographical expansion of its services in almost a decade. Apple said it ... More »
ISLAMABAD/KABUL (Reuters) – Health authorities across South Asia reported rising tallies of coronavirus cases on Monday, raising the prospect of rapidly spreading outbreaks overwhelming poor medical facilities in a region that is home to a quarter of the world... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A European qualifying event for this year’s Tokyo Olympic boxing tournament will be closed to spectators from Monday due to the coronavirus outbreak, organizers said. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) boxing task force which is organ... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan on Monday identified the country’s first case of coronavirus as reported cases outside China jump. Ferozuddin Feroz, the minister of public health, told a press conference in Kabul one of three suspected cases had been confirmed i... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – After a busy afternoon walking the catwalk in a luxury hotel in Kabul on Friday, Salma Hussaini was named Afghanistan’s first “Ms Valentine”. The 20-year-old from Bamiyan province took a final walk down the runway clad in a pink and yellow to... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – The Taliban said their fighters killed a U.S. service member in Afghanistan on Monday and posted photographs of a blood-soaked backpack and the identity card of a American soldier to prove it. The U.S. military said in a statement an American... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – More than 100 activists protesting against a new Indian citizenship law were injured in New Delhi on Sunday as they clashed with police who used tear gas and baton charges to disperse demonstrators at a major university. Prime Minister Na... More »
(Reuters) – The killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a U.S. raid is a further blow to a jihadist group that once held a swathe of territory in Iraq and Syria, experts said, but the organization and its ideology remain dangerous. Where once t... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The treatment of U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch – disparaged by President Donald Trump and abruptly recalled from Ukraine – exemplifies what current and former U.S. officials describe as a campaign by Trump against career diplomats. A... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly fired his national security adviser John Bolton amid disagreements with his hard-line aide over how to handle foreign policy challenges such as North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan and Russia. “I informed J... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Having once branded John Bolton a “war maniac”, North Korean officials could see U.S. President Donald Trump’s removal of his national security adviser as a chance to resume denuclearization talks without facing an unyielding hawk on the... More »
By Steve Holland and Jonathan Landay BRIDGEWATER, N.J./WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump was briefed on Friday by top national security advisers on the status of negotiations with the Taliban on a U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan and the potenti... More »
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (Reuters) – President Donald Trump met with his national security team on Friday to discuss Afghan peace talks and the meeting went “very well, and negotiations are proceeding,” the White House said in a statement. Source: https://www.reuters... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – England ended their 44-year wait for a maiden 50-overs World Cup title by beating a gutsy New Zealand side on boundaries after a tied Super Over amidst heart-stopping drama on Sunday. Chasing 242 for victory, Ben Stokes’ scintillating 84 not... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan security forces on Monday were battling Taliban gunmen who stormed a building in the capital, Kabul, after a bomb-laden truck exploded near the defense ministry at rush hour, injuring at least 100 people, including 35 children, officia... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s state broadcaster and the media company News Corp said on Monday they will challenge the legality of recent police raids on their staff saying the action was unconstitutional and a threat to media freedom. The Australian Federal ... More »
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) – An ancient tower dating back 2,000 years in the historic Afghan city of Ghazni collapsed this week, local officials said, raising concerns about the vulnerability of the country’s cultural heritage and the government’s ability t... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Minutes before Mena Mangal, a prominent Afghan journalist and parliamentary adviser, was shot dead by two men in Kabul, she had slammed the door of her parent’s home after reminding them to pay the neighborhood shopkeeper 15 Afghanis (20 cent... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two Democrats with U.S. military experience who are vying for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination shifted the focus of the race to foreign policy on Sunday, criticizing Republican President Donald Trump for escalating tensions with ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange repeatedly violated his asylum conditions and tried to use the Ecuadorian embassy in London as a center for spying, Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno told Britain’s Guardian newspaper. London police dragged As... More »
CHRISTCHURCH (Reuters) – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday she would announce new gun laws within days, after a lone gunman killed 50 people in mass shootings at two mosques in the city of Christchurch. Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a ... More »
CHRISTCHURCH/WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand Muslim leaders on Monday conveyed messages of love, compassion and appreciation for the community support they had received after a lone gunman attacked two mosques, killing 50 people and injuring dozens more. Mu... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will withdraw or deny visas to any International Criminal Court personnel investigating possible war crimes by U.S. forces or allies in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday. The court, which sits i... More »
TRIPOLI. (Reuters) – Libyan authorities have arrested a suspected al Qaeda leader who fled from the eastern city of Derna, once a jihadist bastion, a source in the attorney general’s office said on Friday. Abdel Qader Azuz was arrested in the western city of M... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan singer Abdul Salam Maftoon’s striking resemblance to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has turned him into an unlikely celebrity in the war-torn country since his debut on a talent show. The 28-year-old first caught the attention ... More »
KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – As moves toward peace pick up in Afghanistan, the Taliban are trying to show they have changed since the brutal days of the 1990s when they banned music and girls’ education and carried out public executions in Kabul’s foot... More »
AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq (Reuters) – President Donald Trump made a surprise Christmas visit to U.S. troops in Iraq on Wednesday, his first trip to a conflict zone nearly two years into his presidency and days after announcing a pullout of American troops from ne... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will quit in February after falling out with Donald Trump over the president’s foreign policies, including the surprise decision this week to pull troops out of Syria and plan a drawdown in Afghanistan. Mattis, a r... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – By plainly stating his policy differences in his resignation letter, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has sparked an incipient challenge to President Donald Trump’s foreign and security agenda that sets his departure apart from scores o... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Shortly after the release of his 2015 Wall Street drama “The Big Short,” writer and director Adam McKay was home sick with the flu and picked up a book about former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. McKay was fascinated by the power that... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide bomber in Afghanistan killed at least 12 people, including several children, on Tuesday, in an attack in the eastern city of Jalalabad claimed by Islamic State militants. The attacker detonated his explosives near a petrol pump, kil... More »
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – An explosion hit the center of the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Sunday, killing at least 20 people, including several members of the small Sikh minority, provincial government officials said. The blast, hours after Pre... More »
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Unidentified gunmen killed five mine-clearance workers in Afghanistan on Monday who were preparing for construction of an international gas pipeline, while one worker was kidnapped, officials said. The $8 billion TAPI pipeline... More »
HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Taliban fighters threatened the provincial capital of Farah in western Afghanistan on Tuesday, with fighting underway on the outskirts of the city where government forces were defending two police districts, officials and residen... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the CIA, Gina Haspel, sought to withdraw over concerns about her role in the agency’s interrogation program, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday. Haspel’s offer to withdraw... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – An explosion at a mosque used as a voter centre in the eastern Afghan province of Khost on Sunday killed at least 17 people and wounded 34, local officials said, in the latest attack on preparations for long-delayed parliamentary elections. B... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Twin blasts in the Afghan capital Kabul killed at least 25 people on Monday, including eight journalists who had arrived to report on the first explosion and who were apparently targeted by a suicide bomber, officials said. Several hours late... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A day after being sworn in as the new U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo landed in Brussels for talks with key allies in Europe on heightened Russian aggression and ways to strengthen the NATO military alliance. Pompeo, a former Army off... More »
KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan launched a nationwide polio vaccination drive this week to reach 38.7 million children and eradicate the paralyzing and potentially deadly virus in one of the last countries where it is endemic. Nearly 260,000 volunteers ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senior Republican senator on Sunday warned U.S. President Donald Trump against pulling U.S. troops from Syria, saying it would lead to a resurgence of Islamic State and increased Iranian sway over the Syrian government in Damascus. “It... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – An exhibition that reproduces the precious treasures of Mughal art in their original setting in Kabul’s Babur Garden opened this weekend, bringing a rare moment of cultural relief to a city pounded by war for decades. “King Babur’s Kabul: Cra... More »
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – President Donald Trump has told advisers he wants an early exit of U.S. troops from Syria, two senior administration officials said on Friday, a stance that may put him at odds with U.S. military officials who see the fight ag... More »
UNHCR Special Envoy actor Angelina Jolie takes part in a news conference at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, January 31, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.N. refugee agency special envoy Angelina Jolie called on NATO on Wednesday to h... More »
An ambulance carries victims near the site of an attack at the Marshal Fahim military academy in Kabul, Afghanistan January 29, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail KABUL (Reuters) – Gunmen attacked an army outpost near one of Afghanistan’s main military academies on... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Chelsea Manning, the transgender U.S. Army soldier who served seven years in military prison for leaking classified data, is seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate seat from Maryland, according to Federal election ... More »
FILE PHOTO: Britain’s skip Eve Muirhead delivers a stone during their women’s curling bronze medal game at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in the Ice Cube Curling Centre in Sochi February 20, 2014. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File photo MAUCHLINE, Scotland (Reuters) – J... More »
Pakistan’s Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Qamar Javed Bajwa arrives to attend the Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 23, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s army chief told a top U.S. general the nation... More »
FILE PHOTO: Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev attends a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China August 31, 2015. REUTERS/Lintao Zhang/Pool/File photo WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Kazakhsta... More »
Afghan security forces keep watch at a check point close to the compound of Afghanistan’s national intelligence agency in Kabul, Afghanistan. December 25, 2017. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani KABUL (Reuters) – Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – Islamic State claimed responsibility for an explosion on Monday carried by a suicide bomber near a compound of Afghanistan’s national intelligence agency in the capital, Kabul, the group said on its Amaq news agency. The blast, close to the e... More »
FILE PHOTO: Swiss drugmaker Novartis’ logo is seen at the company’s plant in the northern Swiss town of Stein, Switzerland October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann ZURICH (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted priority review for Novartis... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Legislation to provide $81 billion in new disaster aid for U.S. states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands was put on hold by the Senate on Thursday amid attacks from both Republicans and Democrats. The Republican-controlled House o... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack near a training facility of Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency in the capital, Kabul, on Monday as gunmen exchanged fire with security forces. Details of the attack remained unclear after... More »
U.S. Secretary for Defense, Jim Mattis, sits opposite Britain’s Secretary of State for Defence, Gavin Williamson, before a meeting at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in central London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – U.S. De... More »
On the eve of his trip to Europe, Rex Tillerson gave a speech last week that European allies had waited months to hear: an "ironclad" promise of U.S. support to its oldest allies. More »
Afghan National Army (ANA) troops keep watch at a check point in Aqcha district of Jawzjan province, Afghanistan November 27, 2017. Picture taken November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer JAWZJAN, Afghanistan/KABUL (Reuters) – When a Taliban commander defected to Is... More »
Rescue personnel inspect a vehicle damaged by a suicide bomber which killed a senior Pakistani police official on his way to work in Peshawar, Pakistan November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed... More »
U.S. President Donald Trump gave a bullish Thanksgiving address to troops overseas on Thursday, hailing progress in Afghanistan and against ISIS, and telling them they were fighting for "something real," including a stock market at record highs and his promise... More »
German Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) during the exploratory talks about forming a new coalition government in Berlin, Germany, November 19, 2017. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday... More »
A series of Taliban attacks over six hours on more than a dozen Afghan checkpoints killed 22 police and wounded 15 in the southern province of Kandahar, police said on Tuesday. More »
Opioid drug abuse has killed more Americans than the Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam wars combined, and U.S. veterans and advocates this Veteran's Day are focusing on how to help victims of the crisis. More »
The BBC is facing an angry reaction in Afghanistan after it changed the name of one of its local language Facebook pages to BBC Dari, the official name of the Afghan version of Persian or Farsi but one rejected by many local Persian speakers. More »
U.S. lawmakers will grill top Trump administration officials on Monday about a new authorization for the use of military force for the campaign against Islamic State and other militant groups, Congress' most significant step in years toward taking back control... More »
Australia will not be allowed to walk away from legal, financial and moral responsibility for nearly 800 men when it closes its asylum seeker detention center in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Tuesday, PNG's immigration minister said. More »
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared the southern city of Marawi liberated from pro-Islamic State militants on Tuesday, although the military said 20-30 rebels were holding about 20 hostages and still fighting it out. More »
Adobe Systems Inc (ADBE.O) warned on Monday that hackers are exploiting vulnerabilities in its Flash multimedia software platform in web browsers, and the company urged users to quickly patch their systems to prevent such attacks. More »
When the sniper’s bullet shattered Paola Bautista’s arm, her sister and a stranger in the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest Festival got her to cover. Then they focused on the bleeding. More »
The International Committee of the Red Cross will "drastically" cut back its operations in Afghanistan following attacks that have killed seven of its staff this year, the aid group said on Monday. More »
A explosion was reported on Friday in the Afghan capital of Kabul, a spokesman for the interior ministry said. More »
Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan killed four members of a Shi'ite Muslim Hazara family, including a 12-year-old boy, on Sunday, in the latest sectarian attack on the minority community, a senior police official said. More »
More than 500 people have died so far in a cholera epidemic that is sweeping the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. More »
Nancy Hatch Dupree, a historian from the United States who helped set up the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University, has died in the country whose culture she worked for more than five decades to preserve, the university said on Sunday. She was 89. More »
European satellite launching firm Arianespace said it had called off the launch of two communications satellites seconds before lift-off on Tuesday, citing unspecified problems. More »
U.S. Air Force pilot Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Renken knew that whatever happened next might escalate the war in Syria. More »
White House adviser Sebastian Gorka, who was closely aligned with a nationalist faction led by ousted senior strategist Steve Bannon, no longer works for President Donald Trump, the White House said on Friday. More »
It will be President Donald Trump's turn on Monday to address a problem that vexed his two predecessors when he details his strategy for the war in Afghanistan, America's longest military conflict. More »
Two prominent religious conservatives defended U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday after he was widely criticized for blaming both white nationalists and counter-protesters for last weekend's violence at a Virginia rally organized by neo-Nazis and white supr... More »
U.S. President Donald Trump is eyeing Afghanistan's mineral wealth to help pay for a 16-year war and reconstruction efforts that have already cost $117 billion. Investors who have studied the country, one of the world's most dangerous, say that is a pipe dream... More »
President Donald Trump's ouster of chief strategist Steve Bannon is unlikely to mark the abandonment of the administration's "America First" agenda that has unnerved investors and trade partners and split the White House into nationalist and globalist camps. More »
With Stephen Bannon, the worry always was that he could be even more disruptive to President Donald Trump’s White House from outside than he was within. More »
Since taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has shown an affinity, and perhaps even a deference, to the generals he has surrounded himself with in his Cabinet and at the White House, save one exception: the war in Afghanistan. More »
Pakistan’s former Petroleum Minister and Prime Minister designate Shahid Khaqan Abbasi leaves after submitting his nomination papers to become the new Premier at the Parliament House in Islamabad, Pakistan July 31, 2017. Former petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan... More »
A member of Afghanistan’s Special Forces unit jumps from a wall during patrol in Pandola village near the site of a U.S. bombing in the Achin district of Nangarhar, eastern Afghanistan, April 14, 2017. A total of 2,531 Afghan security forces were killed and 4,... More »
FILE PHOTO: A protester holds a placard in Sydney, Australia, February 4, 2017 during one of several rallies across Australia condemning U.S. President Donald Trump’s order temporarily barring refugees and nationals from seven countries and demanding an end to... More »
British surgeon David Nott trains Palestinian doctors in Gaza City July 10, 2017. Picture taken July 10, 2017. Mughrabi More »
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Washington, U.S. June 21, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Two senior Republican U.S. senators criticized Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday for saying that Russia may have the “right approach” on Syria and for what... More »
