Ron Synovitz is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL.
After the murder of an Afghan BBC reporter, his colleagues say the crime was sadly unremarkable. Afghan journalists risk their lives not only in war zones, but also by probing the drug trade, warlordism, and corruption.
The rise in the price of oil has led some of the world's wealthiest Muslims to search for new moneymaking opportunities consistent with the teachings of their faith.
A new $3.5 billion contract to develop the Aynak copper field is part of Beijing's larger strategy to expand investment in its western provinces and widen crossborder connections to Central Asia, South Asia, and Iran.
The Pakistani government has denied widespread reports that the release of Islamabad's kidnapped ambassador to Afghanistan was part of an exchange for Taliban prisoners.
Pakistan is in the midst of a political crisis after nine ministers from the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigned from the cabinet because of a disagreement over reinstating sacked judges.
As Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov has actively sought to establish a cult of personality and entrench his own power. But signs of possible internal discord are emerging in his second year in office.
When the Taliban began its rapid rise to power in Afghanistan in 1994, most of its members were young students of the Koran recruited from madrasahs in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. But it has evolved into a network of divergent groups whose supporters and tactics bear little resemblance to the original.
Pro-Taliban militants should order a stop to violence and the abetting of foreign Al-Qaeda fighters. In return, government troops would be gradually withdrawn.
Hours before scenes of Saddam Hussein's statue being toppled transfixed the Western world five years ago, Arabs got word of the regime's collapse from a man wielding a shoe in Baghdad. He says he's still awaiting a return to normalcy.
France will send an additional battalion to eastern Afghanistan, spotlighting French participation in ISAF and in NATO. Will other allies follow?
Clashes between Iraqi security forces and Shi'ite militia continue in the southern Iraqi port city of Al-Basrah -- the fourth day of fighting there since Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a government assault against Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Imam Al-Mahdi Army militia.
Officials in Kabul say the Afghan National Army soon will number 70,000 combat-ready soldiers -- the strongest the force has been since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
A public rift between Taliban leaders and Al-Qaeda supporters in the Arab world could hint at prospects for peace in Afghanistan. Disputes include whether to negotiate and the limits of foreign influence.
More Afghan parents appear to recognize that violence causes physical and psychological harm to children. A much smaller group still calls it "a good way of bringing up children."
Britain's Ministry of Defense has confirmed that Prince Harry is to be withdrawn from Afghanistan after news leaked that the third-in-line to the British throne has been secretly serving as a front-line combat soldier in Helmand Province for more than two months.
Azerbaijan's government has raised concerns with U.S. officials that militants from Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are expanding from northern Iraq into the Caucasus and could be setting up cells in Azerbaijan.
Afghanistan's top prosecutor accuses a powerful militia commander and presidential adviser of kidnapping and other crimes, but says a trial is unlikely.
When commander Mullah Mohammad Salaam defected to the side of the Afghan central government in December, he made international headlines. Now Salaam, in an exclusive interview with RFE/RL, is accusing the Taliban's supreme leader of violating "the teachings of the Koran and the orders of God."
Much of Afghanistan's cultural heritage has fallen victim to its recent war-torn past. But one expatriate's plans to bring his personal collection home and set up a series of museums are in jeopardy because of a dispute with the Culture Ministry.
Afghan authorities say they have discovered a weapons cache containing 130 different types of mines that appear to have been imported from Iran.
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