Afghanistan's renewed efforts for reconciliation with the Taliban have the backing of the US and Europe, Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has said. Karzai's plans, scheduled to be discussed at a conference in London on Thursday, include reintegrating Taliban fighters into society by paying and resettling them if they lay down their weapons.
Karzai said his government had tried many times in the past to find ways of rehabilitating Taliban fighters who were not part of al-Qaeda, but had previously not had the support of its international partners.
For nearly $4.5 million a year, the State Department in June assigned a 16-person security detail to protect six U.S. contractors in Iraq who already had a team of hired guards they didn't really need.
Believers take water from churches on January 19. The Orthodox Church celebrates the baptism of Christ, or Epiphany, when water is believed to become holy and have healing properties. The water sanctified in churches is often stored by believers for long periods.
The allegation of the Vatican bank's financial corruption has been made by an Italian magazine that pointed to the financial institute's purported involvement in stealth fiscal transactions —via several accounts —with Italy's UniCredit Bank, Russia Today television network quoted the Panorama magazine as reporting.
In my studies over the past 30 years, I have learned much about you and your actions. I also know you and your colleagues are getting desperate.
Relevant questions begging for answers include: Who made the decision not to "connect the dots"? Are right-wing elements and holdovers from the previous administration actively conspiring to destabilize the Obama government? Was the attempted bombing a planned provocation meant to incite new conflicts in the Middle East and restrict democratic rights at home?
U.S. securities regulators originally treated the New York Federal Reserve's bid to keep secret many of the details of the American International Group bailout like a request to protect matters of national security, according to emails obtained by Reuters.
The "nuclear renaissance," hailed in many headlines and speeches over the last few years, started under President George W. Bush.
