Afghanistan

2 AP Journalists Shot By Afghan Police, 1 Dies

8:22am April 04, 2014

The AP reports Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Anja Niedringhaus was killed. Reporter Kathy Gannon was wounded. The two were in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan ahead of Saturday's election.

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World News

'Wrong Enemy': Pakistan Plays A Double Game In Afghanistan

1:04pm April 02, 2014

Morning Edition's Renee Montagne, who's reporting from Afghanistan, talks to New York Times reporter Carlotta Gall about her new book, The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan: 2001-2014.

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World News

Suicide Bomber Targets Afghan Police

1:04pm April 02, 2014

by Sean Carberry

In the Afghan capital Kabul, a suicide bomber wearing a police uniform walked up to a checkpoint outside the headquarters of the Interior Ministry and killed several members of the national police.

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World News

NATO Pressures Karzai To Sign Troop Pact With U.S.

7:30am February 27, 2014

by Sean Carberry

Without the deal, Obama told Afghan President Hamid Karzai this week that the U.S. will move ahead with plans to pull all U.S. troops out the country by the end of 2014. NATO plans to follow suit.

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World News

Obama Tells Pentagon To Plan A Full Afghan Departure

7:43am February 26, 2014

by Tom Bowman

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign a security agreement that would keep U.S. troops in his country. Despite the pressure, Obama is giving Afghan officials more time to finish a deal.

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Afghan Prisoner Release Promises To Inflame Tensions

7:58pm February 13, 2014

Strained relations between Afghanistan and the U.S. and NATO may only get worse this week. The Afghan government is releasing 65 prisoners, many of whom have been accused by the West of plotting and participating in terrorist activities. Robert Siegel speaks with Nathan Hodge of The Wall Street Journal to learn more about the rationale behind this release and what it might mean for Afghan security and diplomacy.

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World News

Local Economy Suffers After Afghan Housing Bubble Bursts

1:28pm February 11, 2014

by Sean Carberry

The housing bubble in Afghanistan was created by the influx of international organizations and their thousands of workers over the last 12 years. As countries pull out of Afghanistan, rent prices are tumbling, vacancies are soaring and sales have flatlined.

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Conditions are spare at the Window of Hope orphanage in Kabul, but American NGO worker Siavash Rahbari (upper left) says it's still better than how many Afghan children live.

World News

Texas Man Becomes Unlikely CFO Of Ragged Kabul Orphanage

6:14pm January 04, 2014

by Sean Carberry

After decades of war in Afghanistan, the country has thousands of orphans. One home for these children ended up with an improbable benefactor — an Iranian-American who came to Kabul to do rule of law development work, and stumbled into a side project working with disabled orphans.

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Auliya Atrafi in his office in Nad Ali, next to a selection of the books he had shipped from England. His library is one of his prized possessions, and he shipped them because he's unlikely to find these books in his native Afghanistan.

World News

There And Back Again: One Afghan's Journey To Find Home

9:28pm December 04, 2013

by Sean Carberry

In 2000, Auliya Atrafi paid thousands of dollars and risked his life to escape Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. He spent 12 years in England, but recently returned to his homeland, where he is trying to readjust to — and change — life in a conservative society.

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Afghans hold large, expensive weddings, even those involving families of modest means. More than 600 people attended this recent marriage at a large wedding hall in Kabul.

World News

Crashing An Afghan Wedding: No Toasts But Lots Of Cheesy Music

6:17pm November 30, 2013

by Sean Carberry

Afghanistan is a poor country with very expensive weddings. There is no alcohol, the sexes are completely segregated, and the families may negotiate over the dowry right up to the last minute.

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