Taliban officials in the newly opened Taliban office in Qatar say the opening of their office is a response to calls by their opponents for the launch of a political process to end three decades of fighting in Afghanistan. In an interview with RFE/RL correspondent Abubakar Siddique, Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem explained the hard-line movement's motives and aspirations behind the opening of their contact office in the Qatari capital, Doha.

The Taliban has expressed its willingness to share power in Afghanistan a day after the hard-line Islamist group opened a political office in Qatar.

Amid news that the Taliban is opening an office in Qatar with the intention of engaging in talks with the United States, RFE/RL looks at what the main players in the Afghan conflict want out of peace negotiations.

U.S. President Barack Obama has defended U.S. efforts to get Afghan peace talks started at a new Taliban office in Qatar.

The attack north of Kabul came just hours after Taliban leaders said they were ready to start peace talks with the United States in Qatar later this week.

The American award-winning war correspondent Michael Hastings, who authored notable articles and books about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, has been killed in a car accident in Los Angeles. He was 33.

The United Nations refugee agency says the number of refugees and displaced people around the world rose to 45.2 million last year – the most in 18 years.

U.S. officials say they will sit down with the Taliban "within days" to begin the "first step on a long road" toward ending the 12-year-old war in Afghanistan.

A suicide bomber has blown himself up in a crowd of hundreds of mourners attending a funeral in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 27 people.