Afghan Authorities Take Over Biggest Bank to Avoid Meltdown
31 August 2010
, The Washington Post, 31 August 2010
EXCERPT: "Afghanistan's Central Bank has taken control of Kabul Bank, a politically potent financial institution partly owned by President Hamid Karzai's brother, and ordered its chairman to hand over $160 million worth of luxury villas and other property purchased in Dubai for well-connected insiders, according to Afghan bankers and...
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NATO Chief Backs Starting Security Handover in 2011
31 August 2010
NATO Chief Backs Starting Security Handover to Afghans Next Year, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, 31 August 2010
EXCERPT: "NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says he hopes NATO member states will agree at an upcoming summit to start handing over security responsibilities in Afghanistan to Afghan authorities next year. The NATO chief's comments came on August 30, as the deaths of four more NATO soldiers were reported...
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Britain Confirms Afghan Combat Mission to End 2015
31 August 2010
Britain Confirms Afghan Combat Mission to End 2015, Reuters, 31 August 2010
EXCERPT: "British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg confirmed Tuesday that Britain's combat mission in Afghanistan would end by 2015 and pledged to protect frontline troops from sudden cuts in government spending. Visiting soldiers at Camp Bastion in southern Helmand province, Clegg also called on Taliban fighters to become part of the political future of...
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22 US Troops Killed in Afghanistan in Four Days
31 August 2010
22 US Troops Killed in Afghanistan in Four Days, The Daily Telegraph, 31 August 2010
EXCERPT: "A series of bomb attacks have badly hit US troops in eastern and southern Afghanistan in the past 48 hours, contributing to the toll. Violence is predicted to rise towards the September 18 parliamentary elections and as American troops begin operations west of Kandahar after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Deaths among the Nato-led coalition...
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Afghanistan's Dirty Little Secret
30 August 2010
Afghanistan's Dirty Little Secret, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 August 2010
EXCERPT: "Western forces fighting in southern Afghanistan had a problem. Too often, soldiers on patrol passed an older man walking hand-in-hand with a pretty young boy. Their behavior suggested he was not the boy's father. Then, British soldiers found that young Afghan men were actually trying to 'touch and fondle them,' military investigator AnnaMaria Cardinalli told...
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Karzai "Fired" Anti-Corruption Lawyer after Top Official Stung
30 August 2010
Karzai "Fired" Anti-Corruption Lawyer after Top Official Stung, The Guardian, 30 August 2010
EXCERPT: "One of Afghanistan's most senior government prosecutors said yesterday that he was forced into retirement after aggressively promoting corruption investigations against top officials, including one of Hamid Karzai's most trusted aides. Fazel Ahmed Faqiryar, a lawyer well-regarded by foreign rule-of-law experts, lost...
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Afghan President Criticizes Anti-Terror Strategy
30 August 2010
, The Associated Press, 30 August 2010
EXCERPT: "President Hamid Karzai renewed his criticism of coalition strategy in fighting Afghanistan's stubborn insurgency, saying it has thus far produced nothing but civilian deaths. Karzai's sharp comments delivered Sunday fit a pattern of greater outspokenness by the Afghan leader as he appeals for support among the beleaguered Afghan public. In...
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Toll from Afghan Base Raids Rises
30 August 2010
Toll from Afghan Base Raids Rises, Reuters, 29 August 2010
EXCERPT: "The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said on Sunday more than 30 insurgents, including at least 13 suicide bombers, were killed when foreign and Afghan troops repelled al Qaeda-linked fighters who attacked two bases. Despite the presence of almost 150,000 foreign troops, violence across Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan...
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Commandos to Be Charged over Children's Deaths
27 August 2010
Commandos to Be Charged over Children's Deaths, ABC News, 27 August 2010
EXCERPT: "Charges will be laid against some Australian soldiers involved in a deadly night raid in which five children were killed in Afghanistan last year. Early last year six Afghans were killed during an Australian Special Operations Task Group raid targeting an insurgent leader in Uruzgan province. Four of the dead were small children. Two more children and...
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US Pullout Plans Give Taliban a Boost: Karzai
27 August 2010
US Pullout Plans Give Taliban a Boost in Afghanistan, Says Hamid Karzai, The Guardian, 27 August 2010
EXCERPT: "The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has criticised American plans to start withdrawing troops from the country next summer, saying that naming the date has given the Taliban insurgency 'a morale boost'. His remarks by the head of the US Marine Corps that plans to begin drawing down...
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