KABUL (Reuters) – Life for ordinary Afghans has become untenable, the Red Cross said on Tuesday, with security seriously deteriorating in the first two months of the year due to a surge in Taliban attacks and accidental NATO strikes on civilians.

Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were overthrown nearly a decade ago, despite the presence of around 150,000 foreign troops, and with Afghan forces to start taking over securing parts of the country in a few months.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai told General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, on Sunday his apology for a foreign air strike that killed nine children last week was “not enough.”

At a meeting with his security advisers at which Petraeus was present, Karzai said civilian casualties by foreign troops were “no longer acceptable” to the Afghan government or to the Afghan people, Karzai’s palace said in a statement.

KABUL (Reuters) – President Barack Obama expressed “deep regret” over an air strike in Afghanistan that killed nine children, the Afghan presidency said Thursday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s palace said in statement on that President Barack Obama had offered his condolences during a video conference the previous evening.

KABUL (Reuters) – The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan made a rare apology on Wednesday for an air strike that killed nine civilians after Afghan lawmakers warned a spike in such raids was hampering efforts to end the war against the Taliban.

U.S. Army General David Petraeus ordered all military commanders and attack helicopter crews to be re-briefed on the rules for carrying out air raids after a spate of recent civilian casualty incidents in the east.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Tech hub Bangalore tops the list in a new Morgan Stanley report on how India’s booming cities cope with problems from infrastructure to job creation, with Mumbai, India’s financial capital, trailing in 21st place.

Asia’s third-largest economy is home to one-quarter of the world’s 20 most densely populated cities but the slow pace of urban development has been a drag on economic growth.

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India and Pakistan have announced they will resume formal peace talks, which are expected to start by July.

If the long-time rivals follow through, these will be the first talks since New Delhi broke off peace negotiations after militant attacks on Mumbai in 2008.

KABUL, Feb 2 (Reuters) – The Afghan central bank said on
Wednesday it will seek to sell the troubled Kabulbank within
three years once it has been rehabilitated after fraud and
mismanagement cost it hundreds of millions of dollars.

Widespread mismanagement at Kabulbank has threatened to add
a financial crisis to security and governance woes in
Afghanistan, where violence is at its worst in a nearly
decade-long war and military and civilian casualties are at
record levels.

KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide attack on a supermarket popular with foreigners killed eight people in the embassy district of the Afghan capital on Friday, the first major attack by the Taliban on civilians in Kabul in nearly a year.

Three foreign women were among the dead, and six people were wounded, Kabul Police Chief Ayub Salangi said. A Reuters reporter saw the body of a child taken away from the gutted supermarket.

KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide attack on a supermarket popular with foreigners killed eight people in the embassy district of the Afghan capital Friday, the first major attack by the Taliban on civilians in Kabul in nearly a year.

Three foreign women were among the dead, and six people were wounded, Kabul Police Chief Ayub Salangi said. A Reuters reporter saw the body of a child taken away from the gutted supermarket.

KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide attack on a supermarket popular with foreigners killed eight people in the embassy district of the Afghan capital on Friday, the first major attack by the Taliban on civilians in Kabul in nearly a year.

Three foreign women were among the dead, and six people were wounded, Kabul Police Chief Ayub Salangi said. A Reuters reporter saw the body of a child taken away from the gutted supermarket.