United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is calling for additional security for U.N. staff in Afghanistan, citing a "dramatically escalated threat" due to the world body's support for that nation's electoral process.Ban also said the U.N. is "exploring the feasibility of bringing in additional security units to guard U.N. facilities." The U.N. currently has hundreds of staff in Afghanistan offering technical and operational support for Afghanistan's elections. Various other U.N. agencies are involved in humanitarian work in the war-torn nation.

Militants who control parts of Somalia's capital city are beating women in broad daylight for violating their radical brand of Islamic law, according to local officials and witnesses in Mogadishu.Ban also said the U.N. is "exploring the feasibility of bringing in additional security units to guard U.N. facilities." The U.N. currently has hundreds of staff in Afghanistan offering technical and operational support for Afghanistan's elections. Various other U.N. agencies are involved in humanitarian work in the war-torn nation.

Why Peshawar and why now?How much can be read into the timing of the attacks It coincides with Hillary Clinton being in the country. It's fundamentally saying: "You've got a high-ranked world leader who's a guest in the country, and we're showing you we're still kicking your backside," for lack of better words. It's really to make President Zardari lose face, as well as to continue the turmoil across the country and to show to the international community that the ...

Taliban militants attacked a private guesthouse in central Kabul on Wednesday morning, killing up to six U.N. staff members and wounding nine more, according to a U.N. spokesman.

We are losing in Afghanistan, on two fronts. The most important center of gravity of the conflict -- as the Taliban well recognizes -- is the American public. And now, most Americans are opposed to the war.

Afghan heroin kills more people from NATO countries every year than Afghan insurgents have killed in the eight years since the fall of the Taliban regime, the United Nations said Wednesday. About 15 million people around the world use heroin, opium or morphine, fueling a $65 billion market, warned Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. The trade is fueling terrorism and insurgencies: The Taliban raised between $450 million and $600 million in the past ...

The regional U.S. military commander was visiting Pakistan on Monday as that country's military continued its massive ground offensive against Taliban militants in the restive northwest tribal region. Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, was holding meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Islamabad. Also there, on a separate visit, was U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the former presidential candidate who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Gilani told Petraeus it was important that Pakistan and ...

Pakistan's army said Sunday it killed 60 "terrorists" as it battles to wrest control of part of the country from the Taliban. Five soldiers were killed in the last 24 hours of the assault, the military said. Pakistani troops launched the massive ground offensive backed by air power this weekend in South Waziristan, a refuge and a power base for insurgents operating in Pakistan and along the Pakistani-Afghan border. The highly anticipated offensive comes after a wave of suicide attacks ...

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi denied Thursday that payments to the Taliban in Afghanistan were authorized to protect Italian soldiers deployed there. The accusation, published by the London Times, is "baseless," his office said in a written statement. "Berlusconi's government has never authorized nor allowed any form of money payment in favor of members of the Taliban insurgency, nor does it have any knowledge of these types of initiatives enacted by the previous government. "As a way of proving this, ...

Determining the amount of troops necessary to win a war is never an easy decision for a commander in chief and his military commanders if history is any guide. And it's a dilemma President Obama faces as pressure mounts on him to decide what strategy will improve conditions in Afghanistan. The president and his top military, national security and foreign policy advisers are conducting an intensive strategic review of the U.S. military presence in the war-torn nation. Gen. Stanley ...