The Associated Press: Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government, tarnished by corruption and unable to control large swaths of its own territory, is rapidly losing the support of ordinary Afghans, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke said Saturday.      Full news...

IRIN News: Local residents in the Sangeen district of the restive southern Afghan province of Helmand said armed Afghan men in military uniforms looted their homes and businesses in early April. There are conflicting reports on whether the men were allied with international forces fighting the Taliban or whether they were an independent militia.      Full news...

Associated Press: U.S. forces in Afghanistan recently intercepted Iranian-made mortars and other weaponry in Afghanistan, although it is not clear they were shipped directly from Iran, the military's top general said Tuesday.      Full news...

IRIN News: The United Nations and two prominent human rights organisations have raised grave concerns about the increasing number of civilians affected in armed conflicts in Afghanistan. On Monday, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on the dramatic rise in civilian casualties during insurgent attacks in Afghanistan.      Full news...

BBC News: US marines violated international humanitarian law by using excessive violence in reaction to a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan, a report says.      Full news...

IWPR: President Karzai may have helped save the Prodi government by trading Taliban prisoners for an Italian hostage, but in the process, he has damaged his own credibility at home.      Full news...

The Scotsman: ITALY'S government paid a ransom of £1 million to the Taliban to free an Italian photographer taken hostage in Afghanistan, an aid group has claimed.      Full news...

The Associated Press: Roadside bombs in southern Afghanistan on Sunday left seven NATO soldiers dead, the alliance said, as its forces continued an anti-Taliban offensive in the world's most fertile opium-producing region. It appeared to be the biggest combat loss for foreign troops in Afghanistan since 2005.      Full news...

FinalCall.com: It is year six of the UN-backed NATO occupation of Afghanistan and Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon admitted in a report to the United Nations Security Council on Mar. 20 that the resistance in Afghanistan appears "emboldened." In 2006, the casualty rates increased on the ground and NATO lost 46 troops.      Full news...

Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN): More than five years after the ousting of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, residents of the southern province of Helmand say their lives have become more insecure.      Full news...

ABC Radio Australia: A majority of the Afghan people initially welcomed the foreign troops because they saw that as the best way to free themselves from the medievelist rule of the Taliban. But I think over a period of time neither security has been really delivered, nor reconstruction to the extent that was really desirable. And as a result of that, a great majority of the Afghan people have not really profited from the presence of the foreign troops to the extent that they had expected. And as a consequence I think quite a number of Afghans have now turned not only against the Karzai government, but also its international backers.      Full news...

BBC News: Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo has returned home to a hero's welcome after two weeks as a captive of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. But the terms of his release, which saw five insurgent leaders freed from Afghan prisons, have been universally criticised.      Full news...

The Associated Press: A suicide bomber targeting a Canadian military convoy killed a child and wounded a NATO soldier and three other people Saturday in southern Afghanistan, officials said.      Full news...

The Deccan Herald: For the US administration, Afghanistan is a lab experiment gone horribly wrong, very much like Iraq. Not only did they lose initiative within months of their invasion here; the brutality and randomness of their attacks resulted in more civilian deaths than insurgents. In five years the death toll is five times the number killed in the 9/11 attacks. So if retribution is what they were really after, then they have overachieved. And, this does not include deaths by radioactive material and cluster bombs.      Full news...

Denver Post: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls Afghanistan "a war that is unfinished and nearly forgotten." For all the political drama that is unfolding over the Democrats' decision to use the upcoming debate over war spending to challenge President Bush's policies in Iraq, the Democratic congressional caucus is also using the spending measure for a purpose equally crucial. It is redirecting funds toward Afghanistan in a last-ditch effort to rescue the country that was the original "central front" in the war on terror.      Full news...

The New York Times' blog The Lede: Swirling amid the fallout from the deaths of a number of civilians on a crowded Afghan highway yesterday is what appears to have been an attempt by some American soldiers at the scene to prevent any images of the carnage from getting out to the wider world.      Full news...

The Guardian: U.S. Marines fleeing a militant ambush Sunday opened fire on civilian cars and pedestrians on a busy highway in eastern Afghanistan, wounded Afghans said. Up to 16 people were killed and 34 wounded in the violence, officials said.      Full news...

Green Left Weekly: The new constitution of Afghanistan formally grants equal rights to women and men. The government has also endorsed the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which, according to development agencies, is significant progress on gender equality “policy advocacy”. The first time I arrived in Kabul the women I saw on the streets were wearing scarves on their heads and those wearing full chador were a minority. Maybe, at a superficial glance, the situation had improved for the women of Afghanistan?      Full news...

The Australian: A SUICIDE bomber killed as many as 20 people outside the main US base in Afghanistan today, coinciding with a visit to the base by US Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr Cheney was not hurt, according to his spokeswoman.      Full news...

The Associated Press: A suicide bomber outside Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, kills at least 19 people, during a visit by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Afghan officials say. Cheney is safe and leaves the base soon after.      Full news...

Dawn (Pakistan): "Security has sharply deteriorated in all regions. Afghans are more insecure today than they were in 2005. This is due largely to the violence surrounding the insurgency and counter-insurgency campaigns, and the inability of security forces to combat warlords and drug traffickers."      Full news...

AntiWar.com: A crazy woman stalks the streets near Afghanistan’s parliament. When a warlord’s rocket killed her family during the early 1990s she lost her mind. Now she moves between the cars and people looking for it, another of the living dead trapped in her own private hell.      Full news...

Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA): When Khan Aga powers up his Mercedes diesel truck and leaves Kabul for southern Afghanistan, he doesn't know if he will ever see his wife and eight children again.      Full news...

AP: More than 1,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in 2006, most of them as a result of attacks by the Taliban and other anti-government forces in the country's unstable south, a rights group said Tuesday.      Full news...

The Associated Press: Increasing the size of the U.S.Army, strained by the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will cost an estimated $70 billion (€53.68 billion), a top Army general said Tuesday.      Full news...

Yemen Times: All eyes have been on Iraq since the US invasion a little over a year ago. But Afghanistan, where the United States started its war on terror after the attacks on US soil on September 11, 2001, is full of violence, warring factions and drug-lords.      Full news...

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...