Afghanistan cricket team members pose with the winning trophy after their first Test win beating Ireland by seven wickets, in Dehradun.
Irish cricket team captain William Porterfield and Afghani counterpart Asghar Afghan team jointly inaugurate the Test Match trophy, in Dehradun.
Supporters of the Afghan team at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Dehradun
A boy walks inside what is left of a home that was damaged by heavy rains in Kandahar province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Af...
Afghanistan's player celebrate with the trophy after they beat Ireland in T20 series at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Dehradun.
Boys walk under snow-covered trees in Kabul, Afghanistan.
A man walks in a snow covered cemetery on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan.
Afghan security forces gather at the site a day after an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. A Taliban suicide bomber detonated an explosive-laden vehicle in the capital Kabul on Monday ...
An Afghan boy prepares tea as he waits for customers on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan.
People walk at the site of a massive fire at a gas station in Kabul, Afghanistan. An Afghan official says the overnight fire that began at the gas station and spread to a nearby ap...
U.S. and NATO forces pose for a photograph during a ceremony on Christmas Day at the Resolute Support Headquarters, in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Injured men receive treatment at a hospital after Monday's Christmas Eve attack, in Kabul, Afghanistan. A suicide bomber and gunmen armed with assault rifles and explosives attacke...
In this Feb. 26, 2016 file photo, five-year-old Afghan Lionel Messi fan Murtaza Ahmadi poses for photograph, as he wears a shirt signed by Messi, in Kabul, Afghanistan. A young Afg...
Security forces block the roads at the site of a suicide bomber attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. Najib Danish, spokesman for Afghanistan's Interior Ministry, said the attack in Kabul ...
Inside of a wedding hall in Kabul, Afghanistan, a day after a suicide attack. A suicide bomber was able to sneak into the wedding hall where hundreds of Muslim religious scholars a...
A man injured in a suicide bombing is brought into a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. A Public Health Ministry spokesman said another 60 people were wounded in the attack, which too...
Injured men receive treatment at a hospital after a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan. Afghan officials said the suicide bomber targeted a gathering of Muslim religious scholar...
An Afghan laborer moves a sack of charcoal at a shop, in Kabul, Afghanistan. In the winter, prices of wood and charcoal rise along with other necessities.
Men watch a fire at an appliance market in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Men take photos of the ruin after a fire devastated an electronic appliances market in Kabul, Afghanistan. Residents of the Afghan capital are grappling with the aftermath of a mas...
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."
