Afghanistan

On Monday, the team behind Lee Brice's "I Drive Your Truck" gathered in Nashville to celebrate the song's reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. From left: co-songwriters Jimmy Yeary, Connie Harrington and Jessi Alexander, military father

Music & Culture

A Songwriter And An Army Dad Share One Touching Story

9:26am May 19, 2013

by NPR Staff

The song "I Drive Your Truck" is a No. 1 country hit. It began with a father's remembrance of his son, who was killed in action in Afghanistan — and a songwriter who just happened to be listening.

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Afghan and U.S. officials attend the closing ceremony for the Paktia provincial reconstruction team on April 9 in eastern Afghanistan. NATO created more than 20 teams to help the Afghans rebuild. But now the U.S. teams are winding down their activities.

World News

U.S. Hands Over Nation-Building Projects To Afghans

4:24am May 16, 2013

by Sean Carberry

U.S. reconstruction teams have spent a decade building roads, bridges and other pieces of infrastructure that are badly needed in Afghanistan. But now the international effort is winding down, and it's not clear how much the Afghans will be able to do on their own.

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World News

Younger Generation Poised To Lead Afghanistan's Future

1:19pm May 14, 2013

by Renee Montagne

Afghans under 35 make up about 75 percent of the country's population. Each one of them was born into war and endured their country's nearly unbroken string of conflicts. And they've come of age as Afghanistan struggles to establish itself as an autonomous country.

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Saifulzul Husseini (right) works in Dashti Barchi, a Hazara neighborhood of Kabul. He believes that ethnicity should be listed on the new identity card.

World News

Afghans Confront Sensitive Issue Of Ethnicity

11:43am May 09, 2013

by Sean Carberry

Afghanistan is set to issue new national IDs that will have a person's ethnicity embedded in it electronically — but not printed on it. That's renewed debate over a divisive issue in a country made up of many different groups.

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World News

Afghan-Pakistani Forces Exchange Fire Along Shared Border

11:04am May 07, 2013

by Sean Carberry

Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan are on the rise again following two border clashes in the space of a week. The trouble was apparently sparked by Pakistan's decision to erect a new border gate despite Afghan objections.

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A model of a drone is hoisted in the air at a protest of the U.S. military's use of drones during a demonstration on April 3 in New York.

National

The Hidden Cost Of The Drone Program

4:02pm May 06, 2013

by NPR Staff

One expert says the administration is operating drones with a "kill-not-capture" policy, adding that you don't get intelligence from those killed. But there's also a human toll — from the pilots who remotely operate the drones to those people who live in the areas that are targeted.

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledged a report this week that the CIA has regularly been sending him money. Afghans seem to have mixed feelings. The president is shown here speaking at an event in Kabul on March 10.

World News

Secret Cash To Afghan Leader: Corruption Or Just Foreign Aid?

7:48pm May 01, 2013

by Sean Carberry

Afghans are expressing mixed feelings on CIA cash payments to President Hamid Karzai. Many say the practice is wrong and symbolizes the widespread corruption in the country, while some see it as just another form of foreign assistance.

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Photographer Tim Hetherington during an assignment for Vanity Fair Magazine at the Restrepo outpost.

Sebastian Junger: 'Which Way' To Turn After Hetherington's Death

11:53am April 18, 2013

In a new documentary premiering on HBO, the journalist explores the life of his friend, the war photographer Tim Hetherington. The two collaborated on the 2010 documentary Restrepo, and Junger was profoundly changed after Hetherington was killed by shrapnel in Libya in 2011.

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World News

Foreign Service Officer Died Doing What She Loved

10:09am April 08, 2013

by Sean Carberry

In Afghanistan this weekend, a suicide bomber took the lives of several Americans on a mission to deliver books to an Afghan school. Among the dead was 25-year-old Anne Smedinghoff. Coworkers say she was committed to improving the lives of Afghan women and children.

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World News

Afghanistan, Pakistan Struggle To Find Common Ground

8:05am April 02, 2013

by Sean Carberry

Relations between the two countries have long been problematic but seemed to be turning a corner a few months ago. Now, they are at it again: After a series of diplomatic miscues, each country is accusing the other of hindering peace talks with the Taliban.

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