(BBC) It's unusual for a woman to be a leader in Afghanistan but Zarifa Qazizadah has become the country's only female village chief through force of personality and determination to get things done - even if that means cross-dressing, wearing a false moustache and driving around on a motorbike at night.

(BBC) Poverty and unemployment are overwhelmingly seen as the main reasons behind conflict in Afghanistan, according to a survey in that country.

(AJE) Abdullah Abdullah, the Afghan presidential candidate who quit the runoff vote, has described as "illegal" his rival Hamid Karzai's re-election as the country's president.

(VOA) Afghanistan's Election Commission has declared President Hamid Karzai the winner of the country's disputed election after canceling a second round of voting.

(Al Jazeera English) The United States has said it is ready to work with the next Afghan president despite questions about the government's legitimacy after challenger Abdullah Abdullah withdrew from the presidential election runoff.

KABUL (Reuters) - The heads of more than half of Afghanistan's district election offices will be replaced to prevent fraud in a second-round presidential election critical to the country's credibility and foreign support.

(Al Jazeera English) While Pakistan continues the struggle to tame its Taliban elements, multinational forces are claiming some success in neighbouring Afghanistan.

KABUL (AP) Thousands of foreign fighters have poured into Afghanistan to bolster the Taliban insurgency, the country's defense minister said Saturday as he called for more international troops.

(The Globalist) - U.S. President Barack Obama has the fate of Afghanistan firmly on his mind. However, problems are brewing in the country quite apart from the discussion of military security. César Chelala examines key public health challenges in the crucial battle for the hearts and minds of Afghanistan’s women and children.

(IHT) MEHTARLAM, Afghanistan: The American military declared the nighttime raid this month a success, saying it killed 32 people, all Taliban insurgents — the fruit of an emphasis on intelligence-driven use of Special Forces.

(CSM) Negotiating with the Taliban might be the only hope for peace, but women are nervous.

KABUL, Afghanistan (IHT) As Afghan officials reported more civilian casualties from coalition airstrikes on Thursday, witnesses to a strike that apparently hit a wedding party earlier this week said the civilian death toll could be more than double the 40 reported so far by Afghan officials.

KABUL (Xinhua) -- The war-torn Afghanistan has seen deteriorating of security in the past months as criminal gangs and militants have resorted to abduction of foreigners and attacking soft targets as a new tactic to destabilize security and defame the government.

KABUL (IHT) As the new planting season for opium poppy draws near, the governor of Helmand, Afghanistan's largest poppy-producing province, says that this year he is determined to beat the illicit crop, which is a major source of money for drug lords and insurgents alike.

KABUL (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has disclosed that his administration wanted talks with Taliban through the mediation of Saudi Arabia, an Afghan web site Quqnoos reported on Wednesday.

(VOA) Afghan and international forces have agreed to suspend military operations on September 21 in observance of United Nations "Peace Day."

YAKOWLANG, Afghanistan (IHT) A pitiable harvest this year has left small farmers all over central and northern Afghanistan facing hunger, and aid officials are warning of an acute food shortage this winter for nine million Afghans, more than a quarter of the population.

(Guardian) General Ali Shah Khan Paktiwal, the chief of the Kabul criminal investigation department, sits forward in his chair, stubs out a Marlboro Red and stabs the air with his finger. "Paktiwal knows no fear," he says quietly. "Paktiwal does not even know the meaning of the word fear."

KABUL (IRIN) - The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) says donors must provide "vital funding” to enable aid agencies to avert a possible humanitarian crisis this winter.

(Euronews) Reports are coming in of serious loss of civilian life in Afghanistan during a raid by coalition forces. The Afghan Interior Ministry says 76 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed during a US-led bombardment in Herat province.

KABUL (IHT) Taliban insurgents have mounted their most serious attacks in six years of fighting, an ambush on French troops Tuesday that killed 10 soldiers and wounded 21, according to military officials, and a complex attack Monday night on a U.S. military base with several suicide bombers.