South and Central Asia

A planned “mass suicide attack” in Kabul has been foiled by the Afghan intelligence service, with up to 18 people arrested as a result.

The U.S. military is to pay the Afghan families who lost loved ones in the mass shooting.

The killing of 16 civilians by an American soldier in Afghanistan sparked a public backlash, with the country’s parliament condemning the killing and the Taliban issuing threats on Monday.

The ruling Congress Party of India was soundly defeated in elections in the state of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous and most politically crucial state in the country, according to media reports.

Three oil tankers operated by NATO in Pakistan were torched by unknown assailants on Sunday, local media has reported. No deaths or injuries were reported.

Suspected Taliban militants attacked a U.S. military and civilian base on Thursday in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, with two attackers and a civilian reportedly killed in the incident.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a lengthy discussion with Pakistan officials on the matter of how to deal with the insurgent Haqqani network after last week’s deadly, 20-hour-long attack on NATO buildings and the American embassy in Kabul.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that eight children, trained by the Taliban to become suicide bombers, were released back to their families.

A band of gunmen on motorcycles shot and killed a Saudi diplomat near the Saudi consulate in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, on Monday.

Now that U.S. Special Forces have slain al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the debate has begun as to whether it is mission accomplished in Afghanistan, and if the U.S. should accelerate its troop withdrawal.

Stealth helicopter in Osama bin Laden’s compound? Photos of the Blackhawk helicopter that crashed at the site reveal the bird could be a stealth chopper.

The Taliban prison escape on April 25 served a tough blow to the Afghan government, with the nearly 500 escaped inmates compounding a history of poor security at the Saraposa prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

As the ancient kings of Afghanistan, the Pashtun today comprise nearly the full ranks of the Taliban while also holding a majority in the Afghan government.

Pakistan Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated Wednesday in Islamabad.

Pakistan traffic laws have been rarely enforced in the past, but seat belts have become law in the past three years. To say the least, driving in Pakistan is an adventure for a foreigner.

Osama bin Laden said in an audio recording on Friday that France should leave Afghanistan.

PAKISTAN KEY: Defeating al Qaeda in Afghanistan and ever more so in Pakistan is the focus of the coalition forces, according to the 2010 Afghanistan-Pakistan Annual Review.

A man with the Afghan Border Police shot and killed six American troops during a training mission in eastern Afghanistan.