How did a 15-year-old Tajik boy get arrested earlier this year in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, which borders Afghanistan? The boy says he was kidnapped. But the Pakistani military says the youth might also have been part of a network of foreign Islamic militants operating in the wild tribal areas of northwestern Pakistan.
Karzai (pictured, center, at inauguration on 7 December) is urging 'jihad' against opium Afghanistan is by far the world's leading producer of opium. Its narcotics economy, based on the farming of opium poppies, accounts for 87 percent of the global opium supply and this year earned an estimated $2.8 billion -- a massive increase over 2003's $500 million. The opium trade, according to the United Nations, accounts for more than 60 percent of the economy of Afghanistan, which is among the world's poorest countries. Eradicating opium, in such a context, might seem impossible. But during a national counternarcotics conference in Kabul this week, Afghanistan's newly inaugurated President Hamid Karzai pledged to do just that, vowing to wage an all-out "holy war" on drugs.
The global anticorruption watchdog Transparency International has released the results of a public survey looking at which institutions private citizens find the most corrupt. In more than half the countries surveyed, the general public rated politics as the institution most affected by corruption. The Transparency survey, released today to correspond with the first United Nations International Anticorruption Day, ends with a plea for the global community to adopt a policy of zero tolerance toward political corruption.
De Hoop Scheffer wants NATO members to exhibit "a sense of responsibility" (file photo) Brussels, 9 December 2004 -- NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer opened a meeting of the alliance's 26 foreign ministers in Brussels today with a call to boost their commitment in Afghanistan and Iraq.
8 December 2004 -- The U.S.-led military in Afghanistan says some elements of the neo-Taliban have contacted it following an offer of amnesty if they surrender their weapons.
Karzai has led the Interim, and subsequently Transitional, administrations for nearly three years (file photo) On 7 December, Hamid Karzai was sworn as the first popularly elected president in Afghanistan's history in the presence of an unprecedented number of foreign dignitaries.
Karzai takes the oath of office Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first directly elected president today at an inauguration ceremony in Kabul's presidential palace. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld were among the scores of foreign dignitaries in attendance as Karzai took an oath of allegiance to both Islam and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The ceremony follows Karzai's outright first-round election victory on 9 October -- a ballot that Karzai praised in his inauguration speech as a sign of great progress and hope. But Karzai also warned that there is still cause for concern about terrorism, religious extremism, warlords, illegal drug production, and drug smuggling.
7 December 2004 -- Russia welcomed today the inauguration of Hamid Karzai as Afghanistan's first democratically chosen president.
Karzai has many challenges ahead (file photo) 7 December 2004 -- Hamid Karzai was sworn in today as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president.
6 December 2004 -- Remnants of the ousted Taliban regime have threatened to launch attacks during the swearing in of Afghan President-elect Hamid Karzai.
Afghanistan's president-elect, Hamid Karzai (file photo) 4 December 2004 -- Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Afghanistan's President-elect Hamid Karzai to avoid the appointment of warlords to his new cabinet once he takes office in an inauguration scheduled for 7 December.
Some predict Afghanistan will be cleared of mines in a decade Kenya today officially launched a weeklong international conference toward the goal of eradicating land mines around the world. Held under the auspices of the United Nations, the conference gathers representatives of more than 140 governments that have ratified the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines. Hundreds of anti-mine activists and land-mine victims also are attending the Nairobi conference.
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