The Christian Science Monitor: The US is spending about $10 billion a month on Iraq and Afghanistan. By the end of this year, the total funds appropriated will be nearly $600 billion – approaching the amount spent on the Vietnam or Korean wars, when adjusted for inflation.      Full news...

Associated Press: An Afghan insurgent leader operating from inside Pakistan sent some 200 ill-equipped fighters, some wearing plastic bags on their feet, into Afghanistan where most were killed in a major battle this week, a top U.S. general said Saturday.      Full news...

The Canadian Press: Five years after Canada began pumping millions of aid dollars into Afghanistan, taxpayers still have no idea how well the money is being spent.      Full news...

The Herald (UK): The Taliban, are not the only ones terrorising Gereshk. So are the police. "They are thieves," said Sgt Din through a translator, pointing to the town. "They stop the vehicles at checkpoints and take money. One day we tried to stop them. They cocked their weapons. So did we. The ANA commander told us not to get involved."      Full news...

IDMC: Fierce fighting between NATO troops and insurgents in southern Afghanistan has sent tens of thousands of people fleeing from their homes in a new wave of displacement. Although numbers are unverified, the government said that more than 20,000 families had been displaced due to the fighting in the provinces of Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan as of November 2006.      Full news...

AP: NATO acknowledged Wednesday that the number of civilians killed by its forces in Afghanistan last year was too high, but said the Western alliance was working to change that in 2007.      Full news...

Reuters: Scores of people protested in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday over the killing of two civilians and the arrest of three by U.S.-led troops, officials and witnesses said.      Full news...

Seven Oaks Magazine: In early September, Canadian military personnel stationed in Afghanistan's Kandahar province spearheaded NATO's Operation Medusa, aimed at Taliban strongholds in the Panjwaii and Zhari districts of that province. Accustomed to seeing the Canadian Forces' role as that of peace-keepers, many observers were stunned by reports that the Medusa offensive had resulted in hundreds of enemy combatants killed along with five fatalities suffered by Canadian soldiers. Meanwhile, there was a largely unreported civilian exodus as some 80,000 people fled their homes while "at least 50 civilians were killed over several weeks of bombing" (New York Times, Nov 27, A12).      Full news...

The Hindustan Times - While the world waiting eagerly to welcome the new year 2007, the people of Afghanistan, the Karzai government and the US and NATO fighters would like to forget their worst year since the ouster of Taliban five years ago. The year 2006 witnessed the killing of over 3900 people, representing a four-fold increase over the 1000 deaths last year.      Full news...

PeaceReporter - Lashkargah: I don’t know their names, I don’t even know their age. They weren’t in condition to talk. They are five “presumed Taliban” arrived on Tuesday to the Emergency hospital in Lashkargah, placed in south Afghanistan. They are coming from the Kajaki area, in the eastern land of Helmand province, they travelled for hours through the dust of the desert. But to be arrived is just a great fortune.      Full news...

Pajhwok Afghan News: About 90 civilians were killed in NATO air strike in Panjwaye district of the southern Kandahar province, residents said on Wednesday. However, NATO-led ISAF forces claim they had killed 38 Taliban fighters in the bombing.      Full news...

The Canadian Press: NATO air strikes in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province killed nine civilians and wounded 11 others Wednesday, the provincial governor said. NATO said an operation was believed to have caused "several" civilian casualties.      Full news...

Cursor.org: For every American who dies in either Afghanistan or Iraq, about 17 innocent Afghan or Iraqi civilians perish. The overall cumulative death count for both Americans and civilians in Iraqi is approximately ten times greater than in Afghanistan (data accessed on September 17, 2006).      Full news...

CTV.ca News: Up to 80 suspected Taliban militants and an unknown number of civilians died after U.S.-led coalition forces bombed a village in southern Afghanistan.      Full news...

Daily Times: The United States and its western allies have no interest in a stable and peaceful Afghanistan as the ravaged country continues to worsen under the Northern Alliance rule, who have big stakes in drug businesses and civil strife, says Kathy Gannon, a veteran journalist and Afghanistan expert.      Full news...

BBC News: But in some cases, the agencies' wasteful bureaucracies are also holding back efforts to rebuild this war ravaged country, according to Ashraf Ghani, who has written a report on international development and post-war reconstruction, sponsored by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).      Full news...

Mr. Shinwari says these decisions are based on Islamic law. But as a growing chorus of European and Western donor nations call on the government to reform and professionalize the judicial system - as required by the Constitution and the Afghanistan Compact signed in London on Feb. 1 - the chief justice says that Afghanistan will be governed by Islamic laws or tumble into violent civil conflict.      Full news...

The Telegraph (UK): Some cabinet ministers in Afghanistan are deeply implicated in the drugs trade and could be diverting foreign aid into trafficking, the country's anti-narcotics minister said yesterday.      Full news...

Daily Mail: At least 30 members of an Afghan wedding party were killed and many more wounded when a U.S. plane bombed a village in the central province of Uruzgan today, Afghan officials and residents said. They told the local Pashtu service of the BBC at least 120 people had been either killed or wounded.      Full news...