Afghan Court Ruling Seeks to Alter Election Results
24 June 2011
A special court set up at the behest of President Hamid Karzai ordered on Thursday the reinstatement of 62 candidates who had lost their seats or had been disqualified from last year's parliamentary elections, reviving the prospect of a constitutional crisis for the nation. The decision was the latest chapter in a heated dispute over allegations of fraud in last September's elections. Coming a day after President Obama's announcement of troop withdrawals...
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Reactions to US Troop Withdrawal Plans
24 June 2011
European allies on Thursday applauded President Barack Obama's plan to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, with France jumping at the chance to announce its own drawdown in a mission that has drained budgets and strained public opinion across the continent. After nearly a decade of fighting in Afghanistan, Obama's withdrawal blueprint was welcomed by NATO allies facing dwindling support, if not outright opposition, because of the conflict. Obama...
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Governance and Militancy in Afghanistan and Pakistan
24 June 2011
The CSIS Program on Crisis, Conflict, and Cooperation (C3), formerly the PCR Project, has studied the link between the rise of nonstate armed groups (or militants, for the sake of simplicity) and the quality of local governance in Afghanistan and Pakistan: whether a link exists and, if so, what the United States can do about it, if anything. This research, based on more than 250 field interviews and an extensive review of published literature, found...
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Afghanistan Urges End to Pakistani Border Attacks
24 June 2011
The Afghan government on Friday called for an end to cross-border attacks from Pakistan, warning that such incidents could affect "improving trust and cooperation" between the two wary allies. The high-level warning comes after days of claim and counter-claim over cross-border attacks by the neighbours, whose relations are strained over the Islamist militancy faced by both which Kabul says is rooted in Pakistan. Four children were killed late Thursday...
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