Modelled on how Sunni nationalist groups in Iraq were induced to turn their backs on al Qaeda, the first examples of the new US policy of "reconciling" the Taleban are now being seen.

Senior Pakistani army officers have been targeted in a bloody militant suicide bomb attack that killed at least 40 people.

Sometimes, out of the blue, I'll ask myself "How did I, a New Zealander as true as they come, end up in the United States Army?"

Barack Obama has announced he will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan despite growing pessimism about the war.

An anti-apartheid musician huge in his homeland is now living quietly in our midst.