Kandahar update

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

President Obama is to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and deploy them within six months, US officials have said. Commanders on the ground want the reinforcements concentrated in Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan, including Kandahar and Helmand, the group’s opium-producing heartland. Ben Gilbert is reporting from an American base in Kandahar Province. Download MP3 (Photo of Marines in Helmand by Manpreet Romana/AFP/Getty Images)

• President Obama’s Afghanistan plan: our coverage
• BBC coverage
• Monday’s interview with Ben Gilbert

The situation in Kandahar

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

President Obama will officially unveil his new orders for the US military in Afghanistan tomorrow night at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York. You can be certain the President’s speech will be closely watched at the military base in Kandahar. That’s Afghanistan’s second largest city and militants have been making gains in the area. Reporter Ben Gilbert is there. Download MP3

• President Obama’s Afghanistan plan
• Taliban insurgency
• Jeb Sharp on the mission in Afghanistan

A view of Kabul

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Anchor Marco Werman speaks with reporter Ben Gilbert, in Kabul, Afghanistan, about his first impressions of the city, and how it compares to Baghdad.

Building up the Afghan forces

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

President Obama says he would announce the long-awaited decision on sending more US troops to Afghanistan “shortly”. Afghan President Karzai recently said the strength of Afghan security forces had to be bolstered and the role of international forces reduced. The World’s Katy Clark reports on how capable the Afghan forces are. Download MP3 (Photo: David Quillen/AFP/Getty Images)

• BBC coverage
• Katy Clark on what if the US loses in Afghanistan
• Jeb Sharp on the mission in Afghanistan

Reporting the war at home

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The news about Afghanistan and Iraq can feel like background noise, as listeners and readers become desensitized to the long, ongoing conflicts. How do local newspaper editors balance their duty to report on important issues vs. losing your attention, with stories day after day on the same topic? The World’s Jason Margolis visited Mississippi and asked editors at three local papers. Download MP3 (Photo: Jason Margolis)

• View pictures of the editors
• Starkville Daily News
• The Clarion Ledger
• Student Printz

Fighting corruption in Afghanistan

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has vowed to remove the “stigma” of corruption, a day after winning a new five-year term. President Barack Obama has asked Karzai to intensify efforts to eradicate corruption, but are the two leaders on the same page? The World’s Matthew Bell reports. Download MP3(AP Photo: Musadeq Sadeq)

• BBC coverage
• Profile: Hamid Karzai

Interview with Afghan parliamentarian

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Shukria Barakzai, a member of Afghanistan’s parliament and a supporter of President Hamid Karzai, tells host Marco Werman how she thinks Afghanistan’s president should go about eradicating corruption in her homeland.

Karzai declared elected president

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Hamid Karzai has been declared the elected president of Afghanistan by poll officials, after they scrapped the planned second round of the vote, Karzai’s challenger, Abdullah Abdullah had pulled out of the race, saying the poll would not have been free or fair. The first round of the vote, in August, was marred by mass electoral fraud. Matthew Bell reports.
Download MP3

• BBC coverage
• Afghan election

Tensions in Northern Afghanistan

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
The contentious re-election of Afghan President Hamid Karzai is raising tensions in several provinces. One flashpoint is Balkh province in the north, where there are fears the Governor may take up arms against Karzai’s government. Anchor Jeb Sharp speaks with Jean Mackenzie, Kabul correspondent for the Global Post.

Paying the Taliban to quit

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The US military in Afghanistan is to be allowed to pay Taliban fighters who renounce violence against the government in Kabul. The move is included in a defense bill which President Obama has signed. The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), has said he envisages the money being used to pay former Taliban fighters to protect their communities. Katy Clark talks with Senator Levin. Download MP3

• BBC coverage
• Carl Levin’s Senate page

US diplomat resigns over Afghan war

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

A senior US diplomat in Afghanistan has resigned in protest at the war against the Taliban, the Washington Post reports. Matthew Hoh said he quit because he had doubts about why the US was fighting. Jeb Sharp discussed the resignation with Andrew Bacevich, a professor of International Relations at Boston University, and Peter Bergen of the New America Foundation. Download MP3

• Washington Post coverage
• Letter of resignation (PDF)

Afghans speak out on call-in show

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Anchor Marco Werman checks in with Inayatulhaq Yasini, host of the BBC’s Pashto-language radio show “Your Voice,” to find out what his Afghan listeners are talking about as the presidential run-off election draws near.

Afghan election goes to run-off

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Afghanistan will hold a deciding round of its problem-hit presidential poll on November 7th, pitting incumbent Hamid Karzai against his rival Abdullah Abdullah. News of the run-off vote comes after a UN-backed panel said it had clear evidence of fraud in August’s first round, lowering Karzai’s vote share below 50%. Initial results suggested Karzai had received 55% of the vote, and ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah 28%. Marco Werman talks with Waheed Omer, a campaign spokesperson for Karzai. Download MP3 (Photo: Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)

• BBC coverage
• Matthew Bell on a possible power sharing deal in Afghanistan
• Marco Werman’s interview with Dr Abdullah

Abdullah interview

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Afghans went to the polls in August to vote for president and the main challenger of the incumbent, Hamid Karzai was former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah (pictured). The poll has been beset by serious fraud allegations and the UN-backed election complaints commission ordered a partial recount. Marco Werman talks with Dr. Abdullah about democracy in Afghanistan. Download MP3

• BBC profile of Abdullah
• FAQ Afghan election

Afghanistan election fraud claims

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s campaign team has condemned as “irresponsible” claims by EU monitors that about a quarter of all ballots cast in the presidential vote in August could be fraudulent. The UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission has suggested that ballots from 10% of polling stations in the presidential vote need to be recounted. Jason Margolis looks at how serious a blow this is for Afghan democracy.

• BBC coverage
• Marco Werman talks with NY Times correspondent Dexter Filkins (Sep8)
• Aaron Schachter on the role election monitors (Sep 8)