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The Taliban and al-Qaeda provided an embarrassing scene for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as President George Bush visited the country last week. Eager to demonstrate Pakistan’s commitment to fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas on the border with Afghanistan, the Pakistani military launched an offensive against a terrorist camp in Danda Saidgai, North Waziristan. The Islamists responded by murdering a U.S. diplomat in a suicide strike outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, as well as launching a counteroffensive against the seat of government in Miranshah, North Waziristan. The attack on the camp in Danda Saidgai...

A group of Afghan Muslim clerics threatened on Sunday to call for a holy war against the United States in three days unless it hands over military interrogators reported to have desecrated the Koran. The warning came after 16 Afghans were killed and more than 100 hurt last week in the worst anti-U.S. protests across the country since U.S. forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. The clerics in the northeastern province of Badakhshan said they wanted U.S. President George W. Bush to handle the matter honestly "and hand...

A US military CH-47 Chinook helicopter has crashed in south-eastern Afghanistan, with officials saying the bodies of at least two Americans have been recovered from the wreckage. The US military had no official confirmation of the number of casualties from the accident in Ghazni province, US military spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy Moore said. But provincial governor Asadullah Khalid said a number of people had died in the crash in Dah Khudaidad district, 2.5km south-west of the provincial capital, Ghazni city. "I went to the crash site," Mr Khalid said. "We took two bodies out of the helicopter. There were more than...

KABUL -- Afghanistan's weather office is still strewn with rubble from the day in 1996 when Taliban supporters sacked it and put an end to weather forecasting, a science they considered sorcery. The main floor of the Afghanistan Meteorological Authority is filled with smashed equipment and charred sheets of paper, the remains of 100 years of weather records. Abdul Qadeer, head of the country's weather forecasting agency, explains that he is still reeling from the Taliban decree that he could deliver today's weather, but not the forecast for tomorrow. "They were allergic to the word 'prediction,' " Qadeer said of...

Basics of The New Iraqi ConstitutionWhat are the essentials for the Iraqis to write a new constitution – one that has a chance of taking root in that beleaguered nation? First, we look at geopolitical realities. Some critics of nation-building in Iraq claim that it is "an artificial nation" with borders that were drawn "arbitrarily by colonial powers." Therefore, they conclude that it is unlikely to survive as a single nation. The critics ignore the fact that every nation in the world except Australia, New Zealand and Japan has at least one artificial international border, drawn as a result of...

Even if America's military had just as quickly lost in Afghanistan as it has now just won, the loss would be a righteous one in light of the brutal assault on The World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. If America makes mistakes along the way in eradicating terrorism, the American public and the international community should not forget it was because America was attacked.

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 8/12/02 Aghanistan, Kabul,Kandahar,Bagram,Malakay;Israel, Belt El, Bethlehem, Baart'a;Baghdad, Iraq; Munich Olympic Village; Cyprus;India, Bandipore, Malangam, Srinagar ==Bagram, Afghanistan == In Bagram, a family of heroes. Spc. Michael Thompson, and his daughter, Spc. Janieko Nance of Baton Rouge, La. == Kabul == In Kabul, at the airport, an Airbus-300B4 from the Indian government to Ariana Afghan Airlines. In Kabul, with memories of Northern Alliance hero Ahmad Shah Masood, the Ministry of Information and Culture demands the resignation of Afghan Information Minister Sayed Makhadom Rahen. == Kandahar == Near Kandahar, Air Force C-17 and Apache...