Afghan security personnel gather at the site of an explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan. An explosion has rocked the Afghan capital of Kabul as early morning commuters were on the stree...
West Indies players celebrate after defeating Afghanistan during their 1st ODI cricket match at Ekana International cricket stadium, Lucknow.
West Indies batsman Roston Chase plays a shot during 1st ODI cricket match against Afghanistan at Ekana International cricket stadium, Lucknow.
People site outside of the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. The embassy issued a statement announcing the indefinite closure of its consular services, citing unspecified sec...
Newly graduated Afghan National Army show their certificate during their graduation ceremony after a three month training program at the Afghan Military Academy in Kabul, Afghanist...
Girls walk home from school on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan.
Wounded men receive treatment at a hospital after a bomb blast in Nangarhar, province east of Kabul, Afghanistan. An afghan official says a bomb blast in eastern Nangarhar province...
Afghan election workers count ballots during the presidential elections, at a polling station in Kabul. Afghans headed to the polls on Saturday to elect a new president amid high s...
Wounded Afghans lie on a bed at a hospital after a bomb attack on a local mosque in Kandahar province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan.
Afghan Sikhs show their inked fingers after casting their votes at a polling station in the city of Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan. Afghans headed to the polls to elect a ne...
Afghans transport the body of a woman who was killed during a raid conducted by Afghan special forces, in the southern Helmand province. An Afghan official said Monday that at leas...
Damaged cars are seen at the site of a suicide attack in Zabul, Afghanistan. A powerful early morning suicide truck bomb devastated a hospital in southern Afghanistan.
Afghan security forces work at the site of a suicide attack near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Hours earlier Afghan officials said a suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle ...
In this image from video released by the CIA, Hamza bin Laden, the son of of the late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is seen as an adult at his wedding. The White House says Hamza...
Afghan special forces stand guard at the site of a suicide car bomb explosion that killed at least four people, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah...
Afghan army soldiers listen to a speech by President Ashraf Ghani during a ceremony to introduce the new chief of the intelligence service, in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during a ceremony to introduce the new chief of the intelligence service, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Ghani, whose government was sidelined in the U...
Bird sellers wait for customers at a market in the Old City of Kabul, Afghanistan.
People shop at a market in the old city of Kabul, Afghanistan.
Afghan firefighters work at the site of Monday's suicide bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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."
