Politicians keep talking up the important of training Afghanistan's police force, but as Christopher Beam learns, the ANP and US Troops encounter cultural misunderstandings, Taliban infiltration of the cooking department and arguments about whether the Afghanistan police are lazy.
Truth in media. Truth in justice. A word which occupies the minds of many academics and has flowed through the annals of Australian justice. A legendary South African forensic scientist, Dr David Klatzow, offers some meaningful insight, says France-based writer Simon Burrow.
The new autobiography by one of the first prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Australian David Hicks, is "self-serving, sanitised and disingenuous", declares Sally Neighbour. Hicks failed to analyse or question his own actions and motives and underplays his role in Afghanistan .
Let's face it: the Taliban is a strong part of the political environment in Afghanistan and therefore we must engage with them to achieve stability. It's just like how peace only arrived in Northern Ireland once the IRA joined the negotiation process, says former foreign minister Alexander Downer.
This week Australian politicians undertake a three day debate on the war in Afghanistan. Recent polling suggests most of the population want our troops returned, but the debate will not encompass specific military resolutions.
Luis Urzúa, the Chilean mining foreman who helped keep his team alive for two months while they were trapped 700 metres below the ground, has given his first interview from a San José hospital bed - discussing the group's use of democracy and its unspoken fear of cannibalism.
Mining and Chile. It is more than fair to say that both words are absolutely synonymous. Just like Chile and its lamentable right-wing leaders, writes Leo Codutti from South America.
Former Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhov, who was sacked last month by President Dmity Medvedev, has spoken out against the Dmity administration despite threats that it would "go after" him and his wife, reports Amy Knight.
Watch as the 33 Chilean miners are brought above ground after 68 days of being trapped in a collapsed mine shaft. Chilean president Sebastian Pinera has promised to hug every miner as they are freed and so far, so good.
The mass rape of 300 women, men and children in a village in Congo has sparked a UN investigation into the incident. Even government troops sent to protect the victims have been accused of raping and looting.
