Pentagon's Task Force on Afghan Mineral Wealth, Private-Sector Reform Folds into USAID
25 March 2011
A prominent Pentagon task force that has sought to help Afghanistan exploit its mineral wealth and expand private-sector employment is being gutted by resignations and will be forced to scale back significantly because of a congressional demand that its operations be folded into the U.S. Agency for International Development. The director of the task force, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Paul A. Brinkley, has decided to quit on June 30, a move that...
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Australia Apologises to Afghanistan over Racist Remarks by Soldiers
25 March 2011
Stephen Smith, the Australian defence minister, apologised to Abdul Rahim Wardak, his Afghan counterpart, Abdul Rahim Wardak, on behalf of the 1,550 Australian troops based in Afghanistan's restive Uruzgan province. "I said, 'I am ringing you, minister, because I don't want this to lower our standing,'" he told ABC radio. "He said that in his mind, in his own view it would not." The Australian military said it had launched an investigation into the...
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Security Forces Deployed as Tribal Clash Looms in East
25 March 2011
Thousands of Afghan security forces were deployed in eastern Nangarhar province to prevent a possible bloody clash between two sub-tribes over a longstanding land dispute, police said on Thursday. Laced with heavy weapons, men belonging to Se Pai and Ali Sherkheil, sub- tribes of Shinwari tribe, had taken positions in bunkers against each other in Shinwari, Acheen and Spin Ghar districts, border police commander, Brig. Gen. Aminullah Amarkhel, told...
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