NATO Pledges More Troops to Afghanistan

NATO has pledged an additional 5,000 troops to be sent to Afghanistan. U.S. President Barack Obama announced yesterday that the U.S. would be sending 30,000 additional troops. 42,000 NATO personnel are currently in Afghanistan, CNN. Map of forces in Afghanistan, BBC News. The Taliban has vowed to fight the surge, BBC News. Live blog of [...]

General McChrystal Calls for More Troops in Afghanistan

U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, the head of NATO and U.S. operations in Afghanistan, has issued a new report calling for more troops, Associated Press. Q & A on troops in Afghanistan, BBC News.
Leaders from all over the world are in New York City this week for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. [...]

Red-Shirt Protests in Bangkok in Support of Thaksin

Massive crowds of red-shirt protesters gathered in Bangkok, Thailand on the third anniversary of the coup that took former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra out of power, BBC News. Anti-Thaksin groups (known for wearing yellow shirts) are also holding demonstrations at a temple that is at the heart of a dispute between Thailand and Cambodia. The [...]

US Scraps European Missile Defense Shield

In a reversal of an agreement made by the George W. Bush administration, the White House announced today that the U.S. will not go ahead with European missile defense plans. Plans for missiles that were to be put in Poland as well as a radar station station in the Czech Republic have been scrapped. The [...]

NY Times Journalist Rescued in Afghanistan

A British journalist working for the New York Times, Stephen Farrell, who was captured by Taliban militants while he was reporting on the airstrikes that struck two fuel tankers outside Kunduz in northern Afghanistan earlier this week, has been rescued in a dramatic mission by Nato forces. Mr. Farrell’s translator Sultan Munadi, an Afghan journalist, [...]

NATO to Investigate Yesterday’s Deadly Airstrikes

A NATO team has arrived in Kunduz province in Afghanistan to investigate the airstrike that blew up two hijacked fuel tankers and killed 90 people (Taliban militants and civilians) yesterday. A German commander authorized the strike early Friday morning but a German patrol didn’t reach the area until 10 hours later, CNN International.
Al Jazeera has [...]

Dozens Killed in NATO Airstrike in Afghanistan

NATO airstrikes killed at least 80 people, including civilians, this morning. The target was two fuel tankers that had been hijacked by Taliban insurgents on a highway outside the northern city of Kunduz, Afghanistan. The tankers were driven to the small village of Omar Kheil where civilians were said to be siphoning fuel from the [...]

Violence Increases Ahead of Afghanistan Election

A car bomb exploded earlier today outside NATO headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. 7 people have died and 90 are injured. Violence is increasing ahead of Afghanistan’s presidential election on August 20, Voice of America.
Britain has suspended the government of Turks and Caicos Islands due to systematic corruption. The governor of Turks and Caicos Islands, who [...]