Afghanistan >>

As the body count for Afghan security forces has risen, it has become clear that no one is going to vote on Saturday in embattled districts like Charkh....

After a wave of violence in the Afghan capital, several restaurants and guesthouses popular with foreigners were ordered closed until after elections on Saturday....

The suicide attacker penetrated nearly to the heart of the security establishment days before the presidential election....

Police officers are killed in latest violence to hit Kabul before presidential elections A suicide bomber killed six policemen at the ministry of interior on Wednesday after slipping through at least one security cordon undetected, the latest violence to hit the capital before presidential elections. ...

Substitute the Wildlings for the Taliban and Game of Thrones has a fair amount of wisdom to impart about Afghanistan When Game of Thrones finally finally returns on 6 April, the most eternal of authors George RR Martin s conflicts will be an engine of the shows fourth season: the battle between the men of the Nights Watch, who guard the 700ft-high icy border of The Realm and the Wildling army that...

Former British foreign secretary calls for urgent and sustainable investment in Afghanistan if 'fragile gains' are to be preserved Afghanistan is in grave danger of going backwards if the world uses the withdrawal of foreign troops as an excuse to abandon the country and cut humanitarian and development aid, the former British foreign secretary David Miliband has warned. ...

Former judge Najla Ayubi raises doubts about commitment to gender equality among most fancied presidential contenders None of the candidates in Afghanistan's presidential race will radically improve women's lives, and activists need to prepare a strategy to push the winner to take bold action, according to an Afghan lawyer and former judge. ...

In the elections, female candidates are trying to advance women’s rights in Afghan society before the possibility of Western influence fading and leaders reconciling with the Taliban....

The presidential election and US withdrawal are lilkely to have complex repercussions for the region's web of invisible networks Afghan watchers in the chancelleries of a dozen different states in south and west Asia know they are in for a long, tough weekend. Alongside them are spies, soldiers and business people, all keen for clues as to how the result of the presidential elections will affect the...

Habib Zahori on losing his friend Sardar Ahmed, a journalist who was killed along with his wife and two of their three children in a Taliban attack on a hotel in Kabul....

Afghans head to the polls on 5 April in the third elections since the fall of the Taliban. Amid fears of widespread fraud , people queue up to register to vote while candidates carry out final rallies ...

Outgoing president will take up residence near the palace, suggesting that he will continue to play a role in Afghan politics A stone's throw from the palace where President Hamid Karzai has spent 13 years, a newly renovated home awaits him and his family. Karzai is due to step down after Saturday's presidential election. Under the constitution he cannot stand again, so the vote is setting the stage...

Those volunteers now flocking to take up arms in Syria: I saw their type in Afghanistan....

Ministry of Defence says shot by British soldier triggered suicide vest, killing the wearer and five others A British sniper killed six Taliban a would-be suicide bomber and five others in Afghanistan with one bullet, the Ministry of Defence has said. The 20-year-old marksman, a lance corporal in the Coldstream Guards, hit the trigger switch of the device from about 900 metres away, causing the bomb...

A man and a woman from different ethnic groups have eloped and been married, but now they face threats of death and arrest....

A Marine deployed twice to Afghanistan found himself fighting once more as a double amputee to reclaim a life of normalcy....

Annual LA event tries to promote Iranian heritage I really hate to talk about politics, said Kajeh Mehrizi, one of the four principals of the Toronto-based Kajart arts collective. Sporting a dapper mustache, he was every inch the artist doing his polite best to overcome an introverted nature and answer the questions of an inquisitive Afghan. We were at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where Kajart...

Many of the major candidates have focused in recent weeks on the country’s northern regions, where the most voters turned out in 2009....

The attack by the Taliban, who have vowed to violently derail the coming election for a new president, was the third in Kabul just this week....

Many international election monitors curtailed their activities or made plans to evacuate their foreign employees, potentially raising serious questions about the election’s validity....