Shooting of Afghan Policeman Points to Tensions between Western, Local Counterparts
18 January 2011
Marine Killed Afghan Policeman Who Pointed Gun, Military Says, Los Angeles Times, 16 January 2011
EXCERPT: "A U.S. Marine shot and killed an Afghan policeman who pointed a weapon at him Saturday, Western military officials said. The incident took place at an outpost in the Sangin district of Helmand province, one of the most troubled enclaves in Afghanistan. Marines from Camp Pendleton took over command of the violent district from British...
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Conflict over Afghan Efforts to Tax Foreign Contractors
18 January 2011
, The New York Times, 17 January 2011
EXCERPT: "[...] The Ministry of Finance says its efforts to change that have run into robust resistance from the very people lecturing it about the rule of law: American and European allies who do not want to see their own contractors taxed. Those contractors respond that taxing them is an absurdity, because foreign companies are here spending...
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Deminers Targeted by Insurgents, Criminal Groups
18 January 2011
Afghanistan: Deminers in the Firing Line, IRIN, 18 January 2011
EXCERPT: "Taliban insurgents and other armed groups as well as criminal gangs in Afghanistan have been deliberately targeting demining NGOs, particularly in the volatile southern provinces, says the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO). At least 10 deminers were killed, 23 injured and 12 abducted in 2010, said ANSO. ANSO's figures differed from those supplied to IRIN by the UN-affiliated...
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Afghan Underworld Challenges Stability Efforts
18 January 2011
, The Associated Press, 17 January 2011
EXCERPT: "The calls were threatening and they just wouldn't stop. The extortion demand was several hundred thousands of dollars. 'Or else,' said the caller. Fearful, the civil engineer started to pay. But it was never enough. First, a rocket was fired at his home in Kapisa province in the foothills of the Hindu Kush range northeast...
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40 Insurgents Surrender in N. Afghanistan: Police
18 January 2011
40 Insurgents Surrender in North Afghanistan: Police, Reuters, 18 January 2011
EXCERPT: "Afghan police said some 40 Taliban insurgents had surrendered Tuesday after a military operation in the increasingly violent north, but the hardline Islamist group said the fighters were imposters. Kunduz province police chief Sayed Rahman Sayedkheli said the insurgents' surrender, in the district of Imam Saheb, near the border with Tajikistan,...
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