Kabul, Afghanistan News

Part 2 of a two-part series.

As the US sends more troops to Afghanistan to try to reverse the growing violence, they are relying on the "clear, hold, build" model of counterinsurgency. The US hopes a surge of soldiers will help them clear areas of Taliban insurgents, maintain a lasting presence in those areas to keep militants from returning, and then bring development to attract popular support.

But soldiers in Wardak Province say that the model has been difficult to implement in here. In particular, they say they are caught in a vicious circle: To win over the locals, the troops must bring development, security, and economic prospects. To do this, they have to diminish the presence of the insurgency. But this, in turn, requires that the troops win support of the population.

A Chinese firm started work on a copper deposit in Afghanistan on Thursday, part of a multi-billion dollar project and the first major foreign investment of its kind in Afghan history, an official said.

Indian external affairs ministry officials Saturday said there was 'no confirmation' of Pakistani media reports that six Indian nationals were killed in a Taliban attack in Afghanistan.

Deadly blasts rocked Afghanistan and Iraq on Thursday, leaving dozens dead and more wounded amidst changing US military strategies in both countries.

Shabana will be the main speaker at a global meet on violence against women. Shabana Azmi left for Afghanistan on Tuesday night on an invitation from the United Nations for a global summit.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the newly arrived top commander in Afghanistan, has concluded that Afghan security forces will have to expand far beyond currently planned levels if President Barack Obama's strategy for winning the war there is to succeed, according to senior military officials.

The Montreal family that lost four members in a baffling tragedy at Kingston Mills locks on the Rideau Canal may soon visit the spot.

Praising Pakistan for its work to counter extremism and terrorism, Miliband said Britain appreciated and commended the sacrifices that Pakistan had made in the war against terror.

British troops from the Royal Regiment of Scotland , take a rest hours after being inserted by helicopter into a Taliban-held area of Afghanistan's Helmand province during operation Panther's Claw, July 10, 2009.

A district in Afghanistan's restive east was in danger of falling into Taliban hands after pitched gun battles with insurgents killed at least eight police, a senior official has said.

Violence against women, including rape, is widespread in Afghanistan, according to a new United Nations report launched by Indian actress and social activist Shabana Azmi in conjunction with the world body.

Afghanistan's government has revised a law that stirred an international outcry because it essentially legalized marital rape, officials said Thursday.

People mill around a crater left by a bomb blast that killed at least 25 people, including a number of schoolchildren, on the main road from Logar province to Kabul on Thursday.

Deadly Afghan blast...CIA misled Congress...McNair death murder-suicide KABUL Afghan police say an explosion in a central Afghanistan has killed 25 people, including 21 civilians and four police officers.

A truck rigged with explosives blew up near Kabul on Thursday killing 25 people including many students in one of the deadliest blasts in Afghanistan this year, police said.

A massive blast triggered Thursday in an overturned timber truck in central Afghanistan killed 25 people, destroyed shops and propelled pieces of the vehicle more than a mile away, officials said.

The commander of US Marines in southern Afghanistan said there was an urgent need for more Afghan security forces as well as civilian experts to back up a major offensive against Taliban insurgents.

A Democratic Party strategist who helped Bill Clinton get into the White House is now assisting a former Afghan finance minister in his campaign to unseat President Hamid Karzai in upcoming elections.

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Washington -- As U.S. troops in Afghanistan suffered the largest one-day death toll in months Monday, military officials and experts warned Americans to brace for rising casualties as thousands of additional service members pour into the country to confront a resurgent Taliban.

Rapists in Afghanistan too often get away with their crime, whilst rape victims lack access to justice and experience stigma and shame, according to a report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights .