NATO

By Reuters | Islamabad | 28 Mar 2012

The US Central Command chief and the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan will meet Pakistan’s army chief on Wednesday, the Pakistan military said, the first high-level military contact since a cross-border US attack last November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Their talks, announced by the Pakistani military, take place a day after US President Barack Obama met Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in Seoul. He expressed hope that Pakistan’s review of strained ties with Washington would respect US security needs.

By Jack Kimball | Reuters | Kabul 15 Mar 2012

In Afghanistan, if NATO forces kill a member of your family, it is better in terms of money if they come from Germany or Italy than the United States or Britain.

In the cold calculation of how much to pay for victims of the decade-old war, British forces have doled out as little as $210, while German forces have paid as much as $25,000, according to a study by the human rights NGO CIVIC.

By Michael Holden | Reuters | London | 19 Mar 2012

NATO has failed to properly investigate or provide compensation for civilian deaths caused by its air strikes during the seven-month operation in Libya that helped bring about the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, Amnesty International said on Monday.

Echoing similar criticisms aired this month by Russia, Amnesty said scores of Libyans, who were not involved in the conflict, had been killed or injured in NATO bombings but there had been no proper investigations into their deaths.

Source : AFP | Seattle | 18 Mar 2012

The US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghans during a shooting rampage was described by those who knew him as "level-headed" and may have snapped under stress, his lawyers said.

The suspect, identified as 38-year-old US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, had served three combat tours in Iraq -- where he was wounded twice -- and was on his first deployment to Afghanistan at the time of the killings.

Source : Cihan | Ankara | 16 Mar 2012

The opposition parties have upped their pressure on the government over Turkey’s decision to host a NATO early warning radar system installed in Malatya province.

Several members of Parliament from the opposition in recent weeks submitted written questions about the radar system, calling on the government to bring the matter before Parliament and get the consent of the legislative body.

By Hamid Shalizi & Jack Kimball | Reuters | Kabul | 16 Mar 2012

A NATO helicopter crashed into a house on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Friday, killing 12 Turkish soldiers on board and four Afghan civilians on the ground, Turkey’s military and a senior Afghan police official said.

The crash came amid growing unease among NATO partner countries about the increasingly unpopular and costly war nearly 11 years into the conflict as most foreign combat troops set to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

By Osama Al Sharif | Arab News | Amman | 16 Mar 2012

More than a year has passed since Libyans revolted against their country's strongman and ruler for four decades Col. Muammar Qaddafi.

What started as a peaceful uprising quickly transformed into an armed struggle. But unlike other mass protests linked to the phenomenon of the Arab Spring, Libya presented itself as a unique case.

Source : Reuters | Moscow | 10 Mar 2012

Russia criticised U.N. investigators on Friday for failing to adequately probe deaths caused by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombs during the uprising against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last year.

Independent investigators for the U.N. Human Rights Council last week issued a report saying NATO had caused civilian deaths, but added the organisation had taken "extensive precautions to ensure civilians were not killed".

By Heidi Vogt | AP | Kabul | 09 Mar 2012<,/cite>

A last-minute agreement has been reached on how to handle the transfer of US detention facilities in Afghanistan to the Kabul government, Afghan and Western officials said Friday.

The issue — along with night raids by international forces in Afghan villages — has threatened to derail a long-term partnership between the two countries. They are in negotiations to formalize a role for US forces after NATO’s scheduled transfer of security responsibility to the Afghan government by the end of 2014.

Source : Reuters | 21 Feb 2012

More than 2,000 Afghans protested outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan over reports that NATO troops had set fire to copies of the Koran.

More than 2,000 Afghans protested outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday over reports that NATO troops had set fire to copies of the Koran.

The Koran is the holy book of Islam.

U.S. helicopters fired flares to try to break up the demonstrators, some of whom were chanting anti-foreigner slogans and throwing stones.