Children play with toy guns during the celebration of the first day of Eid al-Adha in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Muslims offer Eid al-Adha prayers in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Muslims offer Eid al-Adha prayers in Kabul, Afghanistan. Eid al-Adha, or "Feast of the Sacrifice," commemorates the Quranic tale of Prophet Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his s...
Security personnel inspect a damaged vehicle which was firing rockets in Kabul, Afghanistan. At least three rockets hit near the presidential palace on Tuesday shortly before Afgha...
Afghan Army Special forces take part in a training exercise after a three-month training program at the Kabul Military Training Centre (KMTC) in Kabul, Afghanistan.
A Pakistani paramedic treats men, who were injured in a fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban in SpinBoldak border area, at a hospital in Chaman, Pakistan. Afghan gov...
Supporters of the Taliban carry the Taliban's signature white flags in the Afghan-Pakistan border town of Chaman, Pakistan. The Taliban are pressing on with their surge in Afghanis...
Afghanistan's former President Hamid Karzai speaks during a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan. Former President Karzai calls on both the Afghan government and the Taliban to re...
A man receives the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Kabul, Afghanistan. The COVID-19 vaccines were donated by the United States and delivered through t...
People's uprising loyal to Ata Mohammad Noor, chief of Jamiat-e-Islami and a powerful northern warlord, stand guard at their office in Mazar-e-Sharif north of Kabul, Afghanistan. O...
An Afghan civilian carry a wounded child to the hospital after he was injured during fighting between Taliban and government in Badghis province, northwest of Afghanistan. From the...
A member of the Afghan security forces stands guard in the sprawling Bagram air base after the American military departed, in Parwan province north of Kabul, Afghanistan. The U.S. ...
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during a meeting with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.
Former Afghan interpreters hold placards during a demonstrations against the US government, in front of the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Afghan militiamen join Afghan defense and security forces during a gathering in Kabul, Afghanistan. Taliban gains in north Afghanistan, the traditional stronghold of the country's ...
Afghan militiamen join Afghan defense and security forces during a gathering in Kabul, Afghanistan. Afghanistan's defense ministry is working with warlords to mobilize local militi...
Afghan militiamen join Afghan defense and security forces during a gathering in Kabul, Afghanistan. Afghanistan's defense ministry is working with warlords to mobilize local militi...
A woman carries an oxygen cylinder from a privately owned oxygen factory, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Health officials say Afghanistan is fast running out of oxygen as a deadly third su...
A health worker makes a mark on the door of a house after vaccinating the children of the family during a polio campaign in the old part of Kabul, Afghanistan. Gunmen on Tuesday ta...
Afghan men look at a damage car after a roadside bomb explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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K.P. Nayar spells it out as the prime minister, Manmohan Singh prepares to visit Washington:
Notwithstanding New Delhi’s known opposition to bracketing India along with Pakistan and Afghanistan, there are many policy-makers in the Obama administration who believe that the US cannot win the war in Afghanistan unless they also push for a solution to Kashmir and that the problem of a failing state in Pakistan cannot be adequately addressed unless New Delhi and Islamabad are nudged towards a reconciliation...
...there is lack of comprehension now in New Delhi that the Obama administration intends to eventually legitimize the Taliban: what Washington is looking for is a way to put the best front on that eventuality and justify such an about-turn...
Read the full piece at the Telegraph
C. Raja Mohan adds:
...the cynical view of the prime minister’s visit to Washington is that it will be long on rhetoric but short on substance. But the unfolding developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan are too consequential for the national security of both India and the United States for their leaders to waste the opportunity for thinking at the highest levels about political cooperation on stabilising the north-western parts of the Subcontinent.
Read on at the Indian Express
Golnar Motevalli reports for Reuters:
Afghanistan's only known pig has been locked in a room, away from visitors to Kabul zoo where it normally grazes beside deer and goats, because people are worried it could infect them with the virus popularly known as swine flu.
The pig is a curiosity in Muslim Afghanistan, where pork and pig products are illegal because they are considered irreligious, and has been in quarantine since Sunday after visitors expressed alarm it could spread the new flu strain.
More here
This is perhaps also an opportunity to put in the joke received on SMS today: "They said pigs would fly if a black man became President. Well, swine flu."
