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Afghan President-elect Vows Equal Rights for Women in Society

Afghanistan's new president-elect pledged in his victory speech on Monday to give women prominent roles in his government and told his nation that women are important to the country's future. The remarks came a day after a landmark agreement was signed by Afghanistan's two presidential candidates to share power.

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Afghan Women Dare to Cycle, With Eyes Toward Olympics

Not yet 5am, a small pack of women savor the peace six mornings a week, before the men appear on Kabul's streets to hurl insults at them for breaking the gender barrier of acceptable female activity. "These girls are challenging a big taboo in Afghanistan, riding a bicycle."

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UN Reports Positive Trends in Afghanistan

The senior United Nations envoy to Afghanistan reported encouraging economic growth for that struggling nation. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) has risen by 13.8 percent in the last year.

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Good News from Afghanistan

The U.S. plans to double their construction workload in the next year to provide new roads, electric power and water distribution systems to the Afghan people, expanding their development work in the coming fiscal year beginning this month to some 600 projects, an investment of more than $1 billion.

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Land in Afghanistan Donated to Mine Victims

Land in Afghanistan that is now free of mines has been donated to the workers who were injured while clearing those deadly weapons from the area, the United Nations said yesterday.

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Afghanistan Making Significant Progress in Mine Clearance

More than 38,000 anti-personnel mines have been cleared in the past six months across Afghanistan – one of the most heavily mined countries in the world – representing 10 percent of the total number cleared in the past 18 years, a senior United Nations official said Monday.

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Pakistan Afghanistan Leaders Hold Peace Jirga

Pakistani and Afghan political and ethnic tribal leaders meet in Islamabad on Monday to try to agree on ways to tackle rising militant violence including the possibility of opening talks with the Taliban.

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Iran Invited by Group of Eight to Meeting on Afghanistan

Iran said on Monday it had been invited by Group of Eight president Italy to an international meeting on Afghanistan, which is also expected to be attended by the United States. Italy wants to hold a conference bringing together the world's richest countries and Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, India, China, and Turkey among others to find ways of bringing stability to Afghanistan and Pakistan.