Taliban leader in Swat Valley killed in airstrike
Islamabad, Pakistan - More than two dozen militants were killed Friday in a Pakistani military airstrike that targeted high-value Taliban leaders, a Pakistani military official told CNN on Saturday.
The strike on militant hideouts in the country's tribal region killed Taliban leader Fateh Mohammad, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Pakistani station Express TV.
Taliban commanders Mullah Faqir Mohammad and Qari Ziaur Rehman were also targets, but Malik could not confirm whether they were killed in the assault.
Photo spotlight: Cricket fever
Cricket teams swing into action at the Behsood Cricket Ground in Jalalabad as an eight-day tournament wraps up this weekend. Afghan youth have been increasingly taking up the sport in this part of Afghanistan since Afghanistan defeated the U.S. team last month to qualify for the Twenty20 Cricket World Cup (to be held over April and May in the West Indies).
In Jalalabad’s markets, an unexpected rise in the sale of cricket gear has come as a windfall, earning shopkeepers huge profits, thanks to Afghanistan’s cricket-frenzied youth. The Jalalabad tournament was organized in part to raise public awareness against narcotics. (Photo by Hamdullah Arbab of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan)
Report warns of overwork at U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan
A State Department inspector general's report says the U.S. Embassy staff in Afghanistan suffers from morale problems, overwork and the constant demands of visiting VIPs, which the report calls "war tourism."
The inspector general warns that problems may increase as the embassy doubles in size in coming months. FULL POST
UK PM Brown makes surprise visit to Afghanistan
Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid a surprise visit to British troops in Afghanistan on Saturday, his office said.
He went to Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand province, as well as a police training college and a British forward operating base, or outpost, according to 10 Downing Street.
