AFGHANISTAN

The new commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan plans an immediate review of operations to ensure his troops are focused on safeguarding key population centers, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

A veteran commander of top-secret special operations takes charge of the nearly 90,000 U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan Monday, promising to limit the civilian deaths that have cost Western troops Afghan support.

Pakistan has ordered the military to carry out an offensive against Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and his fighters, a provincial governor said on Sunday.

Pakistan will increase defense spending by 15.3 percent in the 2009/10 fiscal year as it battles Taliban insurgents in the northwest on the border with Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has released its first list of protected wildlife that can no longer be hunted or harvested. 32 species are on the initial list, with conservationists hoping to list 70 species by the end of the year.

As the United States pours troops into Afghanistan and boosts its role in the NATO force's command structure, Washington is trying to reassure its allies that it still wants the war to be a joint effort.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved tripling U.S. aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion a year for each of the next five years in a key part of a strategy to combat extremism with economic and social development.

A prominent anti-Taliban Muslim cleric who condemned suicide bombings was killed on Friday in a suicide attack in the Pakistani city of Lahore, police said.

NATO ministers have backed a U.S. shake-up of military command in Afghanistan based on a model used in Iraq, as well as plans to step up training of Afghan security forces, a NATO spokesman said on Friday.

NATO nations agreed on Thursday to cut their 10-year-old peacekeeping operation in Kosovo from around 14,000 troops to 10,000 in coming months, with further reductions planned if security allows.

Barack Obama has presented a fresh understanding of Islam not shown by predecessors, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in his first interview since the U.S. president addressed the Muslim world from Cairo.

A plaque on the wall of the guard booth at the gate of the Pearl Continental Hotel in the Pakistani city of Peshawar reads: This hotel is protected by latest security system.

As the economic crisis squeezes U.S. government budgets and priorities shift beyond defense, the world's top defense contractors will likely turn to acquisitions to ensure they can keep growing.

In 1943, at the height of World War Two, Britain had little left in the bank but still spent 50 percent of gross domestic product on defense. To win the war, there was little other choice.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has urged Kyrgyzstan to abandon plans to shut a U.S. military air base used to support operations in Afghanistan, a senior Kyrgyz official said on Saturday.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday marked the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings on France's Normandy beaches, an important World War Two breakthrough in the battle against Nazi Germany.

President Barack Obama sought to change Muslim perceptions of the United States on Thursday in a speech that urged Arabs and Israelis to declare in public the realities he said they accept in private.

President Barack Obama called for a new beginning in relations between the United States and the Muslim world Thursday, addressing grievances over the Arab-Israeli conflict, two U.S.-led wars and tensions over Iran.

President Barack Obama called for a new beginning between the United States and Muslims Thursday, in a speech delivered at Cairo University.

President Barack Obama called for a new beginning between the United States and Muslims Thursday, and called on both societies to start a new relationship bringing an end to the cycle of suspicion and discord.”

U.S. President Barack Obama will urge Arabs and Israelis to say publicly what they acknowledge in private about Middle East peace moves and Iran when he speaks to the Muslim world on Thursday.