Associated Press: Two months ago, Mohammad Anwar recalls, the Taliban paraded accused thieves through his village, tarred their faces with oil and threw them in jail. The public punishment was a clear sign to villagers that the Taliban are now in charge. And the province they took over lies just 30 miles from the Afghan capital of Kabul, right on the main highway. The Taliban has long operated its own shadow government in the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan, but its power is now spreading north to the doorstep of Kabul, according to Associated Press interviews with a dozen government officials, analysts, Taliban commanders and Afghan villagers.      Full news...

Star-News Online: Nowhere is the scent of corruption so strong as in the Kabul neighborhood of Sherpur. Before 2001, it was a vacant patch of hillside that overlooked the stately neighborhood of Wazir Akbar Khan. Today it is the wealthiest enclave in the country, with gaudy, grandiose mansions that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Afghans refer to them as “poppy houses.” Sherpur itself is often jokingly referred to as “Char-pur,” which literally means “City of Loot.” Yet what is perhaps most remarkable about Sherpur is that many of the homeowners are government officials, whose annual salaries would not otherwise enable them to live here for more than a few days.      Full news...

Midland Free Press: What will it take to convince the Harper government that Canada's military invasion of Afghanistan was an ill-conceived, monumental blunder and failure? As of Dec. 28, 2008 the lives of 106 Canadian soldiers in the flourishing stage of their youthful development have been killed in a war started by George W. Bush and his hawkish Republican Administration. The loss of one Canadian in Bush's war, or what could become Obama's war, is one too many. Further in this regard, Barack Obama's ostentatious saber rattling during his election campaign and his more recent pronouncements on the subject, is not an auspicious or favourable beginning for a newly-elected president of the USA.      Full news...

Quqnoos: Coordination Council 15th anniversary Fifteen years from today on Jadi 11, 1372 (December 31, 1993) the Afghan civil war began in Kabul. This day is remembered as one of the worst days in the recent history of Afghanistan, as some analyst recall, “Rockets and heavy missiles were being fired from every direction in Kabul". It was the starting date to change Kabul city from a typical capital to ruins,Countless dead bodies were on the streets of Kabul in the following days. Kabul hospitals became full of wounded people and there weren’t enough medicine for them, and people were dying on daily bases.      Full news...