NATO nations are worried that rising tensions between India and Pakistan, after last week's attacks in Mumbai, could weaken Pakistan's resolve to combat pro-Taliban fighters on its border with Afghanistan.
President Hamid Karzai criticized the US and other foreign countries for creating a "parallel government" in the countryside during a blunt overview of Afghanistan's problems before a UN Security Council delegation.
The United States on Tuesday cooled its support for a formal path to help Georgia and Ukraine join NATO, amid opposition not just from Russia but also from Germany and France.
NATO commanders in Afghanistan need more troops and equipment to combat the Taliban, the alliance's top officer warned on Monday, as insurgent attacks mount in southern and eastern regions.
A brigade of 3,500-4,000 extra US troops due in Afghanistan in January will be deployed in the east amid efforts to stop infiltration of militants from Pakistan, the US military said on Monday.
The Pakistan government will take a stand on the US drone attacks within its territory soon after a parliamentary committee finalises a strategy on the issue, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Saturday.
The sinking of a pirate ship by the Indian Navy has prodded others, including powerful military nations, into announcing swift and coordinated action in the Gulf of Aden.
Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani left for Brussels on Tuesday to hold talks with senior NATO officials about US missile strikes on the country's soil near Afghan border.
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), said on Tuesday that the alliance should re-evaluate its relations with Russia without severing them.- NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan fired 20 artillery rounds at insurgents inside Pakistan after coordinating with Islamabad, officials said today. Meanwhile, five Afghan troops were killed in a clash with insurgents in the west.
Security forces escorted container trucks and oil tankers through the Khyber Pass on Monday after Pakistan reopened the route critical to transporting supplies to NATO and US troops in Afghanistan.- A bomb blast and clashes have killed an international soldier in the NATO-led force in Afghanistan and 10 militants, including some allegedly linked to al Qaida, the military said on Sunday.
Pakistan's army chief will visit Brussels next week for talks with senior NATO officials about US missile strikes on Pakistani soil near the Afghanistan border, the military said.
A suicide car bomber struck a US military convoy passing through a crowded market in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 20 civilians and a US soldier and wounding an additional 74 civilians, officials said.
The German Chancellor told a security conference in Berlin that NATO, on the eve of its 60th anniversary next April, needed to take a broader approach to security that did not view military and civilian cooperation, such as in Afghanistan, at odds.- Seven civilians and 15 insurgents were killed in north-west Afghanistan in the second air attack this week by international forces.
US President George W Bush assured Georgia and Ukraine of US support for both former Soviet states to join the NATO alliance despite Russia's fierce opposition.
NATO has said it was not opposed to talks between the government and Taliban leaders willing to lay down their arms.
Foreign helicopters accidentally targeted the soldiers in the troubled eastern province of Khost as they worked to provide security for voters registering for elections, officials said.
The failure of NATO member countries to send the troops they promised to Afghanistan shows a "wavering" political will that is hindering the mission's progress, a top US general has warned in London.
An Afghan official says 34 Taliban were killed in an operation by Afghan and foreign forces near a key southern Afghan city.- A suicide car bomb exploded outside a base of the NATO-led military force in Afghanistan's western city of Herat on Saturday, wounding several troops.
General David Richards who is currently serving as Commander-in-Chief of Land Forces will take up his post in August 2009 by replacing General Richard Dannatt, according to a press release by the Ministry of Defence in London.
Afghan authorities are investigating the deaths of at least 17 civilians during a clash between NATO forces and militants in southern Afghanistan, an official said on Friday.- At least 17 civilians, including women and children, were killed in a military operation in Afghanistan, according to a provincial government official giving the first official death toll on Friday.
