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The disclosure that the United States ambassador in Kabul has expressed written opposition to deploying more American troops to Afghanistan lays bare the fierce debate within the Obama administration over the direction of the war, even after weeks of deliberations and with the president on the verge of a decision. The public airing of Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry's reservations bolsters the case of those in the president's circle, notably his vice president and some of his top political advisers, who remain skeptical of a request for 40,000 troops by the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, several officials said Thursday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

President Obama hopes to combine the best elements from among the several proposals he is studying on sending additional troops to Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on Thursday. ''I would say it was more, how can we combine some of the best features of several of the options to maximum good effect?'' Mr. Gates told reporters.. ''So there is a little more work to do, but I think we're getting toward the end of the process.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once served as the top American military commander there, has expressed in writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the country, three senior American officials said Wednesday. The position of the ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, a retired lieutenant general, puts him in stark opposition to the current American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who has asked for 40,000 more troops. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan punctuated Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's arrival here with deadly attacks on Wednesday, underscoring their ability to cause chaos even in the face of offensives on both sides of the border. In Pakistan, a devastating car bomb tore through a congested market in the northwest city of Peshawar, killing as many as 101 people, many of them women and children. Pakistani authorities said the attack was the country's most serious in two years, and the deadliest ever in Peshawar, which has become a front line for Taliban efforts to destabilize the government through violence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When President Obama named two marquee diplomats as his special emissaries to the Middle East and to Afghanistan and Pakistan last January, many here wondered whether they would eclipse Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Nine months later, the two envoys, Richard C. Holbrooke and George J. Mitchell, are the ones fighting to stay in the limelight. For reasons having to do with personality clashes, deteriorating conditions on the ground and the sheer difficulty of reconciling old enemies, Mr. Holbrooke and Mr. Mitchell are both struggling with their portfolios, widely acknowledged to be the most treacherous in American foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Defense ministers from NATO on Friday endorsed the ambitious counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan proposed by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, giving new impetus to his recommendation to pour more troops into the eight-year-old war. General McChrystal, the senior American and allied commander in Afghanistan, made an unannounced appearance here on Friday to brief the defense ministers on his strategic review of a war in which the American-led campaign has lost momentum to a tenacious Taliban insurgency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is bySabrina Tavernise, Mark Landler and Helene Cooper. KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai's concession of the need for a runoff election in Afghanistan appears to have prevented his country from slipping into paralysis, but has created a new landscape of risks and uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The last time the Obama administration arrived at a moment of truth in the debate over what to do about Afghanistan, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Robert M. Gates delivered a one-two punch in favor of a more ambitious approach. Now, as President Obama leads yet another debate on whether to deploy tens of thousands of additional troops there, the secretary of state and the secretary of defense will once again constitute a critical voting bloc, the likely leaders of an argument for a middle ground between a huge influx of soldiers and a narrow focus aimed at killing terrorists from Al Qaeda, according to several administration officials. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Even as President Obama leads an intense debate over whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, administration officials say the United States is falling far short of his goals to fight the country's endemic corruption, create a functioning government and legal system and train a police force currently riddled with incompetence. Interviews with senior administration and military officials and recent reports assessing Afghanistan's progress show that nearly seven months after Mr. Obama announced a stepped-up civilian effort to bolster his deployment of 17,000 additional American troops, many civil institutions are deteriorating as much as the country's security. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Obama administration has told the government of Hamid Karzai that it believes he will be re-elected as president of Afghanistan for another five-year term, two administration officials said Sunday, even though the results from the disputed Aug. 20 vote are still under review because of evidence of widespread fraud. The United States and other NATO countries also told Mr. Karzai's government that they have pledged to help him wage an expanded campaign to peel away insurgent fighters from the Taliban, these officials said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For President Obama, the handshakes and hugs during his first visit to the United Nations last week masked a cold reality: nine months into his presidency, he is being forced to retool his most important foreign policy initiatives, from the war in Afghanistan to peace in the Middle East and his diplomatic overture to Iran. Mr. Obama's efforts to reach out to adversaries and break political deadlocks are running up against old enmities, insoluble differences and foreign leaders who simply do not see eye to eye with the president. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How do you persuade America's allies to stick with the plan in Afghanistan when the strategy itself is being reconsidered -- for the second time in six months? That is one of President Obama's primary challenges this week in New York as he tries for the first time to use his popularity around the world and his skills of persuasion at the United Nations -- friendly but unfamiliar territory -- to urge nervous allies to stick with what a month ago he called a ''war of necessity.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Obama administration now fears that the Afghan election may not produce a clear winner until next spring, which officials said could throw President Obama's policies into flux by leaving Afghanistan without a credible leader for months. The prospect of a runoff election is growing after President Hamid Karzai was awarded 54.6 percent of the votes in the much disputed presidential election last month. But even as American officials noted that the Afghan authorities had begun printing ballots for a second round of voting, these officials said they were worried that a runoff could not be held before Afghanistan's fierce winter starts in November. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When a security guard at the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, was leaving for breakfast Monday morning, he froze at the sight of a crude poster of a rat hanging on his door. ''Warning!'' the poster said in stark, black letters. ''Rats can cost you your job and your family.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two former employees of a private contractor hired to provide security at the United States Embassy in Afghanistan charged that State Department officials were aware as early as 2007 that guards and supervisors were involved in lewd conduct. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, one of the former employees, James Gordon, a native of New Zealand who served as director of operations at the contractor, ArmorGroup North America, charged that he had spoken numerous times with State Department officials about significant problems that threatened security at the embassy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On Monday, as the vote-counting in Afghanistan was nearing an end, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was briefed by the American ambassador in Kabul, Karl W. Eikenberry. The same day, the ambassador delivered a blunt message to the front-runner, President Hamid Karzai: ''Don't declare victory.'' The slim majority tentatively awarded Mr. Karzai in Afghanistan's fraud-scarred election has put the Obama administration in an awkward spot: trying to balance its professed determination to investigate mounting allegations of corruption and vote-rigging while not utterly alienating the man who seems likely to remain the country's leader for another five years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Japan's landmark election presents the Obama administration with an untested government, creating a new set of imponderables for a White House already burdened by foreign policy headaches in Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea. Inside the administration, the historic change in Tokyo is raising concerns that Japan may back away from supporting key American priorities like the war in Afghanistan or the redeployment of American troops in Asia, according to senior officials. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It was a heated debate during the Bush administration: What to do about evidence that Afghanistan's powerful defense minister was involved in drug trafficking? Officials from the time say they needed him to help run the troubled country. So the answer, in the end: look the other way. Today that debate will be even more fraught for a new administration, for the former defense minister, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, stands a strong chance of becoming the next vice president of Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite publicly breaking with an American private security company in Iraq, the State Department continues to award the company, formerly known as Blackwater, more than $400 million in contracts to fly its diplomats around Iraq, guard them in Afghanistan, and train security forces in antiterrorism tactics at its remote camp in North Carolina. The contracts, one of which runs until 2011, illustrate the extent to which the United States government remains reliant on private contractors like Blackwater, now known as Xe (pronounced zee) Services, to conduct some of its most sensitive operations and protect some of its most vital assets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Residents flooded out of the Swat Valley by the thousands on Tuesday as the government prepared to mount a new military campaign against Taliban militants and as a much-criticized peace accord with the insurgents fell apart. People crammed into cars and buses and headed south after the local government told residents to leave Swat before a government military offensive. On Sunday, black-turbaned Taliban fighters seized control of Mingora, Swat's capital. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The big idea behind the Obama administration's long-in-the-making policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan was that the two countries are inextricably linked. The key to stabilizing Afghanistan, the White House concluded five weeks ago, is a stable and cooperative Pakistan. That calculation has been utterly scrambled by the Taliban offensive in western Pakistan, which has forced the United States to concentrate on the singular task of preventing further gains in Pakistan by an Islamic militant insurgency that has claimed territory just 60 miles from Islamabad. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports on the confusion surrounding the killing of captives by the terrorist organization Taliban in Afghanistan. Taliban said that it had killed two German and five Afghan captives. The Afghan government disputed the claim, saying that one German died of heart attack and the other was alive. There was no report about the killing of Afghan hostages, the government said. Meanwhile, Taliban said that they would kill 23 South Korean hostages if their demands were not met.

The article reports that Germany, as cited by Government security officials in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 22, 2007, faces increased risk of terrorist attacks due to its military involvement in Afghanistan. Three German residents, believed to be Islamic militants, informs German Federal Criminal Police, were arrested in Pakistan. In July 6, Germany avoided a terrorist attack when two bombs, hidden in a suitcase on trains, failed to explode.

The article informs that Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan, has disclosed that people sympathetic to the Taliban had been active in the frontier regions near the border with Afghanistan. The prime minister accused the weak authority of the Afghan government. Aziz said that the core of the problem is in Afghanistan.

Reports on the plans of the Afghanistan government to establish a national army as of December 3, 2002.

Reports on how Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai is considered by his fellowmen in Afghanistan.

Reports on the support of the International Monetary Fund to the plan of Afghanistan to adopt the United States dollar as its currency until it introduces a new currency.

Reports the resurgence of sports after the demise of the Taliban movement in Kabul, Afghanistan. Reference to the activities at the Olympic Stadium; Use of the stadium as execution grounds for convicted criminals; Efforts of the National Olympic Committee.

Reports on the formation of a commission in Afghanistan that will organize a grand council to choose the country's next government. Delicacy of the commission's task; Announcement of the news amid violent clashes between the loyalists of defense minister Muhammad Fahim; Role of interim administration leader Hamid Karzai in the selection process.

Reports on the paychecks received by civil servants in Afghanistan. Plans of Finance Ministry accountant Muhammad Rahim on his salary; Details on the payments made by the government to civil workers; Details on the money used in the payments.

Reports on United States Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to Kabul, Afghanistan. Mention of how Powell became the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit the country since 1976; Meeting between Powell and Hamid Karzai, the interim leader of Afghanistan; Highlights of Powell's remarks, including an assurance of long-term U.S. support for the rebuilding of Afghanistan; Description of the social and economic problems that challenge the stability of the country, including the damage caused by war.

Focuses on the lives of Jews Zbolon Semantov and Isaak Levi in Kabul, Afghanistan. Experiences under the Taliban regime; Details on the private war between Semantov and Levi; Discussions on Judaism.

Reports on the plea made by the United Nations to foreign governments to increase their financial donations to Afghanistan. Amount needed by Afghanistan to pay six months of back salaries; Promise made by Pakistan; Continuance of bombings in the country by American troops; Reexamination by the Pentagon of plans to cut back on the fighter-jet patriots.

Reports that Afghanistan's interim rulers are attempting to restore order in the country by disarming the population. Comments of General Bismullah Khan, who oversees security in Kabul; Plans to issue identification cards and confiscate weapons; Accounts of lawlessness in Kabul and beyond; Steps which are being taken by the interim government to break the cycle of violence.

Reports that Joseph R. Biden Jr., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has asked the government of the United States to participate in the multinational peacekeeping effort in Afghanistan.

Reports on the plan of Hamid Karzai, the head of the interim Afghan government to form a national army.

Describes the efforts of airport staff to rebuild the Kabul International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan as of January 2002.

Deals with the defense issued by United States special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalizad on the continued bombing in some parts of the country despite toll on civilians.

Reports that approximately 3,500 former Taliban fighters are being held in a prison built for a capacity of 800, in Shibarghan, Afghanistan. Concerns of international aid groups about overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in the prison; Interrogation of the prisoners by United States investigators; Statement that Afghan deputy defense minister General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is in charge of the prison, has a reputation for brutality; Imprisonment of other former Taliban fighters in Kohat, Pakistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The United States and European nations attending an international conference here on Tuesday are expected to endorse President Hamid Karzai's plan for Afghan forces to take the lead on security throughout the country by 2014, according to Western officials and diplomats. The timeline, which Mr. Karzai outlined last year, is nonbinding and essentially unenforceable. But the war's Western backers hope that official affirmation at Tuesday's conference -- a gathering of more than 40 foreign ministers, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton -- may help ease pressure on European countries where political support for the war has plummeted and government officials are facing demands for a more clearly charted path to withdrawal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As widespread fraud in the Afghanistan presidential election was becoming clear three months ago, the No. 2 United Nations official in the country, the American Peter W. Galbraith, proposed enlisting the White House in a plan to replace the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, according to two senior United Nations officials. Mr. Karzai, the officials said, became incensed when he learned of the plan and was told it had been put forth by Mr. Galbraith, who had been installed in his position with the strong backing of Richard C. Holbrooke, the top American envoy to Afghanistan. Mr. Holbrooke had himself clashed with the Afghan president over the election. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Obama administration is stepping up pressure on Pakistan to expand and reorient its fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, warning that failing to do so would undercut the new strategy and troop increase for Afghanistan that President Obama is preparing to approve, American officials say. While Afghanistan has dominated the public discussion of Mr. Obama's strategy, which officials say could be announced as early as this week, Pakistan is returning to center stage in administration planning. As the president traveled to Asia, his national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, was quietly sent to Islamabad, its capital. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Under heavy international pressure, President Hamid Karzai appears set to concede as early as Tuesday that he fell short of a first-round victory in the nation's disputed presidential election, but the path to ensuring that the country has credible leadership remains uncertain, American and European officials said Monday. The officials said Mr. Karzai was moving toward accepting the findings of an international audit that stripped him of nearly a third of his votes in the first round, leaving him below the 50 percent threshold that would have allowed him to avoid a runoff and declare victory over his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The government of President Hamid Karzai is preparing for the likelihood that he will have to face an election runoff with his main challenger, Afghanistan's ambassador here said Thursday, acknowledging an outcome that Western diplomats had been pushing for but that could complicate the debate over whether to send more American troops. The comments by the ambassador in Washington, Said Tayeb Jawad, were the first in which Mr. Karzai's government conceded that a runoff was likely, after weeks of investigation into stark cases of election fraud. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Until now, the successive American generals in charge of the war in Afghanistan have argued that their responsibilities ended at the border with Pakistan. But the choice of a new and very different breed of general to take over the seven-year-old fight may mean the old mind-set has begun to change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WASHINGTON -- For the United States, a recent tripling in the number of night raids by Special Operations forces to capture or kill Afghan insurgents has begun to put heavy pressure on the Taliban and change the momentum in the war in Afghanistan. For President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, the raids cause civilian casualties and are a rising political liability, so much so that he is now loudly insisting that the Americans stop the practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

CORRECTION APPENDED KABUL, Afghanistan -- In a bid to fend off the threat of a nationwide financial crisis, the Afghan government scrambled to shore up Afghanistan's largest bank on Saturday after lines of frantic depositors mobbed the bank for a third day. The efforts, which an Afghan official said could include the injection of Afghan government funds into the privately owned Kabul Bank, are meant to head off the run on the bank by its customers, who have withdrawn more than $200 million in the past few days amid fears of a wider economic collapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is by Helene Cooper, Thom Shanker and Dexter Filkins. WASHINGTON -- President Obama's top commander in Afghanistan flew to Washington on Tuesday to find out whether he would be fired for remarks he and members of his staff made that were contemptuous of senior administration officials, laying bare the disarray and enmity in a foreign-policy team that is struggling with the war. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In another blow to the Taliban senior leadership, Pakistani authorities have captured Mullah Abdul Kabir, a member of the group's inner circle and a leading military commander against American forces in eastern Afghanistan, according to a Pakistani intelligence official. American officials in the region and in Washington said they had received some indications of Mullah Kabir's detention but that they could not confirm it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the nation's top military officer on Wednesday laid out a muscular defense of President Obama's decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, but they made clear that his plan to begin withdrawing those forces by July 2011 was flexible. At two hearings on Capitol Hill, where they faced deep skepticism about different parts of Mr. Obama's war plan from both parties, they also said that the arrival of the additional forces, while speedy, would not be as fast as Mr. Obama suggested in a speech to the nation on Tuesday night. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]