News About Central Asia 20-NOV-09 en-us Washington (AFP) Nov 19, 2009 - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday it was too soon to set a timeline to transfer security duties from NATO-led troops to Afghan forces, as proposed by Britain.]]> Kunduz, Afghanistan (AFP) Nov 18, 2009 - War-weary villagers in northern Afghanistan are taking up arms against insurgents, sick of having the Taliban encroach on their once peaceful patch of the country.]]> Washington (UPI) Nov 18, 2009 - After eight years of war and huge expenditures of national treasure, is the United States really serious about succeeding in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Or, given the seemingly intractable nature of these conflicts and the exquisite difficulties of coping with foreign cultures, are the United States and its allies embarked on a mission that is unwinnable by most definitions? These questions bound both President Obama's predicament and his choices.]]> Miranshah, Pakistan (AFP) Nov 19, 2009 - At least four militants were killed and five others wounded in a US drone missile strike in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said Thursday.]]> Washington (AFP) Nov 17, 2009 - Top military officer Admiral Mike Mullen said on Tuesday that US forces were under strain from fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq but were not at a "tipping point."]]> Washington (AFP) Nov 16, 2009 - The United States is still unable to use Russian airspace to deliver military supplies to Afghanistan despite a July deal with Moscow, the State Department said Friday, expressing hope the flights can start soon.]]> Sararogha, Pakistan (AFP) Nov 17, 2009 - Pakistan's military said Tuesday that its latest offensive against the Taliban had captured most of the towns and population centres once under militant control in South Waziristan.]]> Islamabad, Pakistan (UPI) Nov 17, 2009 - The Pakistani military may have scored impressive victories in its offensive against terror groups hiding in South Waziristan, but it is the insurgents who have been grabbing the headlines with their relentless, strike-at-will wave of violence, sparing none, not even civilians.]]> Edinburgh (AFP) Nov 16, 2009 - The head of NATO said Tuesday he expected "substantially more forces" for Afghanistan to be pledged within weeks, but only to help speed up handing over security responsibility to Afghan forces.]]> Washington (UPI) Nov 16, 2009 - Did Mikhail Gorbachev launch glasnost and perestroika in the mid-1980s with the aim of bringing about genuine democratic change in the Soviet Union? That's what he says in two interviews on both sides of the Atlantic -- Euronews' Maria Pineiro and Nation Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel -- to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. ]]>