UK to Hand Control of Musa Qala to US
11 March 2010
UK Forces to Hand Control of Musa Qala to US Troops, BBC News, 11 March 2010
EXCERPT: "UK forces are to hand security powers for the Afghan district of Musa Qala to US troops in the coming weeks, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth has said. It comes with the arrival of thousands more US soldiers, allowing UK troops to be moved to other parts of Helmand. Mr Ainsworth said transferring control was the UK's 'next logical stage'. Nato forces...
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Drug Abuse is Problem Among Afghan Police Recruits
11 March 2010
Drug Abuse is Problem Among Afghan Police Recruits, Reuters, 10 March 2010
EXCERPT: "The Government Accountability Office said the illicit drug trade posed a major challenge to the U.S.-led counter-insurgency campaign in Afghanistan, which produces 90 percent of the world's opium. The Obama administration has switched previous emphasis away from eradication -- which was seen as alienating farmers -- to going directly after traffickers...
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House Rejects Plan to Leave Afghanistan by Year's End
11 March 2010
, The New York Times, 10 March 2010
EXCERPT: "In a strong bipartisan endorsement of the Obama administration's policy in Afghanistan, the House of Representatives on Wednesday soundly rejected a call to withdraw American troops by the end of the year. After a three-hour debate held to allow antiwar Democrats to air their dissent, the House voted 356 to 65 to reject the withdrawal...
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German Diplomat Named as Deputy Special Envoy
11 March 2010
German Diplomat Named No. 2 at UN Afghan Mission, Reuters AlertNet, 9 March 2010
EXCERPT: "U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has named German diplomat Martin Kobler as his deputy special envoy to Afghanistan, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said on Tuesday. Kobler, a senior official at the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin and former ambassador to Iraq and to Egypt, will be replacing U.S. diplomat Peter Galbraith, who was fired last...
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