Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who supervised the burning of the Koran last month, said he’s not backing down after receiving death threats. Jones said he feels no responsibility for the violence sparked by his church’s action, including the violent protest at a United Nations complex in Afghanistan Saturday that left at least 11 people dead – and 20 killed in weekend violence. Jones... 

President Barack Obama greets deployed service members and civilians during a surprise visit to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. During his visit he thanked the troops for all their hard work and dedication to the United States. Prior to Obama meeting the troops he flew to Kabul to meet with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai. The Bolivian President and a Russian political leader have launched a... 

Daniel Patrick Boyd, admitted raising money to carry out attacks abroad. A devout Muslim, whose arrest on terrorism-related charges stunned his neighbours in rural North Carolina, faces the prospect of a life sentence after pleading guilty to conspiring to assist violent jihadists and to participate in attacks in foreign countries. Daniel Patrick Boyd, 40, and six other men, including two of his sons,... 

Afghan fears of proselytizing have been brought on by the influx of foreigners since the U.S.-led invasion. Demonstrators protested against Christian organizations in Mazar-i-Sharif in June 2010. The jail commander had remained silent as the prisoner, Sayed Mussa, told a reporter about his journey from Islam to Christianity: his secret baptism nine years earlier, his faith in Jesus Christ and the promise... 

A peculiar report prepared for Prime Minister Putin by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) circulating in the Kremlin today states that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has become the latest in a growing line of Western leaders to make a ‘surprise’ visit to Afghanistan this month and follows visits by United States President Obama (December 3rd), British Prime Minister David Cameron (December... 

President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai The U.S. said Iran shouldn’t interfere with Afghanistan’s internal affairs following a report that an Iranian official gave an aide of President Hamid Karzai a bag filled with packets of euro bills. “We understand that Iran and Afghanistan are neighbors and will have a relationship,” Philip J. Crowley, a State Department spokesman, said in an e-mailed... 

The Netherlands became the first NATO country to end its combat mission in Afghanistan, drawing the curtain Sunday on a four-year operation that was deeply unpopular at home and even brought down a Dutch government. The departure of the small force of nearly 1,900 Dutch troops is not expected to affect conditions on the ground. But it is politically significant because it comes at a time of rising... 

US soldiers in Afghanistan, file photo The suicide rate among US soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan has escalated to a record high, with an average of one suicide per day in June. According to US Army statistics, a total of 32 soldiers took their own lives last month, making it the worst month on record for Army suicides. Twenty-one were on active duty, with the rest being among National Guards... 

Stunning potential: Afghanistan has nearly $1 trillion in untouched mineral deposits including lithium. JACKPOT! The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials. The previously... 

Though it is hard to imagine that eight and a half years in anything the Obama Administration could do with regards to the Afghan War would constitute a “hasty exit,” President Obama attempted to reassure again today that this would not happen, in comments which formally disavowed the July 2011 drawdown date he set himself in December. “We didn’t say we’d be switching off the lights,”... 

German President Horst Köhler announced his resignation today, putting a surprising end to his six year term in office following growing uproar over his comments defending the war of Afghanistan. In a weekend radio interview, Köhler insisted that the war was necessary to protect German economic interests in the region, including trade routes. Köhler subsequently lashed out at domestic criticism... 

Four civilians were killed when US soldiers fired on a bus in Afghanistan on Monday, sparking furious protests and an expression of regret from the military alliance. About 200 men took to the streets of Kandahar to protest at the killings on a highway outside the southern Afghan city, burning tyres and shouting “Death to America, death to Karzai, death to this government”. Hours later,... 

The far right may pose a serious challenge in June parliamentary polls Preliminary results in Dutch local polls suggest an anti-Islam party has made major gains and may pose a serious challenge in June parliamentary polls. The Freedom Party (or PVV), led by Geert Wilders, is opposed to what it calls the country’s “Islamisation”. General elections have been called following the collapse... 

Europe has demilitarized too much since the end of the Cold War and its underfunded defense budgets are undermining shared security goals, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday. Gates, addressing a NATO seminar in Washington, said too few helicopters and cargo aircraft for the NATO mission in Afghanistan were “directly impacting operations.” NATO also needed more aerial refueling... 

Najibullah Zazi, pictured being extradited to New York from Denver, Colorado, has admitted plotting a suicide bomb attack in New York An Afghan immigrant has pleaded guilty to planning a suicide bomb attack on New York’s subway system in what would have been the worst attack on the United States since September 11. Najibullah Zazi, 25, also admitted receiving bomb-making and weapons training...