Kosovo officially launched its new military, the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) to replace the civilian Kosovar Protection Service, which was made up chiefly of separatists from the 1998-99 war against the Serbian government. NATO will support the recruitment drive for the new force, which hopes to have 1,500 members by September. The Serbian government which [...]
Yesterday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told lawmakers that his government had sent a draft agreement to NATO headquarters, designed to give him more control over future NATO deployments. Among other things, the agreement would bar NATO forces from searching Afghan homes. Karzai has been pressuring the NATO-led international forces for more control over their operations [...]
President Barack Obama met with top military commanders today to get a full update on the situation in Iraq and to ask them to begin drawing up an Iraq exit strategy. “I asked the military leadership to engage in additional planning necessary to execute a responsible military drawdown from Iraq,” Obama said in a statement [...]
While President Barack Obama has already pledged that the United States will “responsibly leave Iraq to its people,” and is planning to ask the military to draft a plan to get troops out in 16 months, but comments from General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq, suggest that the elections in Iraq may [...]
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has demanded a full explanation from Israel regarding its attacks on UN schools and other facilities during the 22-day war in the Gaza Strip, which he called “outrageous.” After the statement by Secretary General Ban, the United Nations Security Council is said to be likely to release a statement [...]
President Obama will reportedly sign a new executive order calling for the detention center at Guantanamo Bay to be closed within a year, and will also halt the war crimes trials in the meantime. It remains unclear when he will sign the draft, however. The draft says the closure will “further the national security and [...]
The Israeli High Court of Justice today overturned the Knesset(Israeli Parliament)’s attempt to ban the two Arab political parties with Knesset representation from contesting next month’s elections. The decision was unanimous in favor of lifting the ban on the United Arab List-Ta’al and 8-1 in favor of lifting the ban on Balad. Balad Chairman Jamal [...]
Bodies continued to be pulled from the rubble that used to be the cities of the Gaza Strip today, and the death toll in Israel’s 22-day way has now passed 1,400. 5,500 others were also wounded. In addition, two children in Gaza City were killed when they found an unexploded shell from the conflict. . [...]
The Khyber Pass closed briefly again yesterday after a grenade attack on a Pakistani army camp, just the latest in a long string of closings which have threatened NATO’s ability to use the route, through which roughly three quarters of all supplies for the war in Afghanistan pass. According to General David Petraeus, the United [...]
Addressing an enormous crowd at his inauguration, President Barack Obama spoke on a number of issues and told Muslims that “we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” a nod to international hopes that the United States will embark on a somewhat less imperial foreign policy model. Many Muslims aren’t [...]
