Better late than never: The spokesman for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Tuesday that NATO had extended an invitation to Pakistan to attend this weekend's summit in Chicago, as officials from both the United States and Pakistan indicated that the two countries are close to finding an agreement on reopening the NATO ground supply routes to Afghanistan (NYT, AP, Reuters, AFP). Hours after NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen invited Zardari to the summit, the Pakistani Cabinet's Defense Committee gave the government the green light to lift the blockade on the shipment of NATO supplies through the country (ET, Dawn, DT).

However, the reopening of the ground routes would come with a new fee that is expected to cost the United States another $1 million per day (McClatchy). The Pakistani and U.S. governments are not the only stakeholders in this likely development; many Pakistani traders made a living selling looted goods from NATO trucks, and local militants obtain weapons and ammunition when they attack the containers (Post).

At least two people were killed and several injured in Karachi on Wednesday in two separate incidents of apparent political violence, a day after seven people were shot dead across the city (Dawn, ET). Security forces killed nine militants while shelling their hideout in Orakzai Agency on Tuesday (Dawn). The Taliban released a video on Wednesday of their April 15 attack on the Bannu Central Jail in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, during which almost 400 prisoners were able to escape (ET, DT).

As Europe faces a weakened economy and is forced to implement austerity cuts across the board, the issue of funding is likely to play a critical role at the summit as NATO member states attempt to negotiate the amount of aid Afghanistan will receive after the majority of troops withdraw in 2014 (Reuters). Afghanistan's Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin said Tuesday that Afghanistan is confident that the United States will not only provide the bulk of the $4.1 billion annual budget that officials are expected to endorse at the NATO summit, but will also contribute more in order to expand the number of security forces in the country (Guardian).

Newly elected French president Francois Hollande has already been forced to renege on his campaign promise to pull all French troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year, forced by on-the-ground necessities to at least maintain a force of hundreds of military trainers and 150 paramilitary troops (Post). The training mission that is critical to NATO's strategy in Afghanistan is facing a significant threat, though, as the number of "green on blue" attacks on coalition service members by Afghan security forces has risen rapidly in recent months (NYT). Bonus read: The New America Foundation maintains a database of all reported green on blue attacks (NAF).

Peshawar's first professional tennis tournament since 2002 began this week, with top seeds Aqeel Khan and Yasir Khan starting out strong with straight-set wins over their opponents (ET). This is the first time that Peshawar -- better known for its bomb blasts than for its tennis matches -- has ever held a national championship tournament.

Deadly blow: Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a leading member of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, Mullah Arsala Rahmani, as he left made his way to a government meeting on reconciliation in Kabul on Sunday (NYT, Post, CNN, Reuters, BBC, Guardian, AP, WSJ, LAT). A former Taliban minister who served as an important liaison between the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents, Rahmani's death strikes another blow to the stalled peace talks with the Taliban. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied his group's involvement in the assassination. Also on Sunday, the Afghan government released a list of the next 122 districts in which responsibility for security will be transferred from NATO to Afghan forces, a process that Afghan authorities expect to complete in about six months (CNN, AP, ABC). This is the third of five security transition stages, and includes the transfer of all provincial capitals as well as districts in Kapisa, Uruzgan and Parwan provinces.

Gunmen in Afghan police uniforms shot and killed two NATO service members in the Gereshk district of Helmand Province on Saturday, a day after a man wearing an Afghan Army uniform shot and killed an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan (NYT, BBC, Guardian, Tel, Reuters, NAF). Nine civilians were killed, including a provincial council member, and at least seven wounded on Monday by an explosion in a crowded market in the northern province of Faryab (NYT, BBC, AJE).

The Times' Graham Bowley reported Saturday on the U.S. military's extensive use of aerostats, 117-foot-long helium balloons equipped with cameras, in Afghanistan, irking many locals who feel they are constantly being watched and will continue to be watched even after international troops leave the country in 2014 (NYT). The dirigibles allow NATO to keep an eye on likely targets for attack, and help to catch insurgents planting roadside bombs. And Elisabeth Bumiller profiles Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, America's only current prisoner of war, who was captured by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009 (NYT).

Exercising their recently obtained power to veto NATO's suggested operations, Afghan commanders have reportedly refused over a dozen times in the past two months to act on NATO intelligence about high-value targets, saying the night raids required to get the men would result in civilian casualties (Post). The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, is quickly shifting the U.S. military strategy from broad counterinsurgency operations to a focus on involving Afghan troops in the fight against militants (Post). "The sooner I can get [Afghan troops involved], while I still have the time and the combat power, the more I can catch them if they fall," Gen. Allen said in a recent interview.

Top-level talks

Gen. John Allen met with Pakistani military chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani on Saturday, the latest in a series of high-level meetings between American and Pakistani officials attempting to improve strained relations (AP). A U.S. official said Monday that the United States has been holding intensive talks with Pakistan in recent weeks, aimed at reopening the NATO ground supply routes to Afghanistan, which Pakistan shut after NATO helicopters fired on Pakistani military posts last November (AP). And on Sunday, top military commanders from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) met in Rawalpindi to discuss border control measures, as well as mechanisms to prevent accidental cross-border incidents (Dawn, ET).

A roadside bomb targeting a police vehicle killed one police officer and wounded a dozen civilians on Saturday in Peshawar (AP). Almost half a million residents have reportedly fled Khyber Agency since the Pakistani military began an offensive against militants there in January (AFP). Pakistani helicopters struck militants hideouts on Monday, killing nine suspected Taliban fighters, and injuring five others (ET). Militants in Mohmand Agency attacked a check post run by the local anti-Taliban militia on Monday, killing a senior militia volunteer and injuring ten others (ET, Dawn). Militant attacks targeting foreign aid workers are reportedly on the rise in Pakistan (CNN).

U.S. legislators from both the Republican and Democratic parties advised Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a letter on Friday to designate the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network as a foreign terrorist organization (AP, Reuters, LAT, AFP). Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said during interviews in London that he does not believe al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is in Pakistan, and that there is not enough evidence against Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader Hafiz Muhammed Saeed to arrest him (Dawn).

The Associated Press has obtained the six-page manifesto of a senior Pakistani military officer, Brig. Ali Khan, who is being held in Rawalpindi on charges of plotting with four other officers and the militant group Hizb-ut-Tahrir to take over the military, and end counterterrorism ties with the United States (AP). 

Legal lyricists

The 77-page, detailed version of the Pakistani Supreme Court's judgment against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani -- released last week -- finds its basis not only in Pakistani law and legal precedent, but also in the poetry of legendary Arab poet Khalil Gibran (Newsweek). According to Newsweek, the Prime Minister scoffed at the document: "This is the first judgment in the world's legal history in which excessive use of poetry has been made the basis of conviction. Are the people of this country in future to be punished on the basis of poetry?"

-- Jennifer Rowland

Call to arms: In an audio statement posted on a jihadist website on Wednesday, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called on Muslims to avenge the accidental burning of Qurans by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, and said the U.S. only pretended to be sorry, while President Barack Obama's promise of an investigation was a "silly farce" (AFP, Reuters, AP). As NATO troops continue to hand over security operating to Afghan forces, the Afghan official overseeing transition activity, Ashraf Ghani Ahmedzai, warned Afghans on Thursday that the next phases will be "more difficult" than the first few (Reuters).

A new study by French aid agency Solidarités International found that at least 100 young Afghan children living in Kabul's massive refugee camps died in this year's harsh winter (NYT). The study came out on Wednesday, as the U.N.'s humanitarian chief and emergency relief coordinator Valerie Amos visited Kabul's camps, calling the conditions "deeply, deeply distressing" (AP). Amos also warned that the withdrawal of NATO troops over the next couple of years would result in a massive loss of jobs across the country, potentially drawing more unemployed Afghans to the capital city and worsening the severe poverty already felt there.

The Afghan central bank governor Noorullah Delawari told the Wall Street Journal this week that the bank's new regulations limiting the export of cash to $20,000 per trip are achieving their goal of slowing the flow of cash out of Afghanistan (WSJ). An estimated $4.6 billion -- most of which was obtained legally -- left Afghanistan last year through the country's main airport alone, weakening the Afghan economy and sparking fears about the growing money-laundering business. Meanwhile, over 100 girls schools have reportedly been closed in the eastern province of Ghazni in the last several weeks in response to threats that the Ministry of Education believes are part of a Taliban offensive on girls' education (Reuters).

The parents of a U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured in June 2009 in Afghanistan and believed to be held by the Haqqani Network somewhere in Pakistan, have broken their silence on the proposed prisoner swap that would see Bergdahl's release in exchange for the transfer of five Taliban detainees from Guantánamo Bay (AP, Post, WSJ, NYT, Reuters, Tel). Sgt. Bergdahl's parents told a local Idaho news outlet that they don't think the U.S. government is doing enough to revive talks with the Taliban on securing their son's release, which stalled in March when the Taliban accused the United States of reneging on several promises.

In a CNN interview this week, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani refuted U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statement on Tuesday that Pakistan must "do more" in the fight against militancy and terrorism, saying instead his country is doing all it can, and that there is "a trust deficit" between the United States and Pakistan (CNN). Gilani also reiterated in an interview with The Guardian that Pakistani authorities had no knowledge of Osama bin Laden's presence in Pakistan (Guardian).

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has called off most of its aid projects in Pakistan and recalled all of its foreign staff to Islamabad following the killing of ICRC employee Khalil Dale (AFP). A remote-controlled bomb killed one policeman and wounded three others during a routine patrol in Balochistan on Thursday (ET).

In a move that threatens to further strain ties between the United States and Pakistan, the House Appropriations Subcommittee for State and Foreign Operations included in its proposed 2013 appropriations bill a clause that makes aid to Pakistan contingent upon Pakistan's cooperation with the U.S. on "counterterrorism efforts and other issues" (Dawn, DT). A trilateral meeting of military officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is scheduled to take place in Rawalpindi later this week, and will focus on improving border communication (ET, DT).

Pakistan's secondary schools have recently faced a series of cheating scandals, which continued on Wednesday when a Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) examinations controller visited a Lahore examination session and discovered a fake proctor (DT). BISE Chairman Muhammad Nasrullah Virk immediately suspended the BISE clerk who had helped the imposter draw up fake teaching certificates, and called on all exam inspectors to take action against the so-called "booti mafia."

Accident admission: NATO officials have confirmed that Afghan civilians were killed in two recent NATO airstrikes; six members of a family were killed in southern Helmand Province on Friday, while a reported 14 civilians died in a Sunday airstrike in northwestern Badghis Province (Post, NYT). A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Monday that they will issue a formal apology to the affected families in the next couple of days. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Monday that continued civilian deaths could endanger the strategic partnership agreement he and President Barack Obama signed last week (Reuters, CNN). Karzai summoned U.S. Gen. John Allen, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, and Amb. Ryan Crocker to the presidential palace to express his anger over the recent casualties.

France's new president-elect, Francois Hollande, has pledged to pull all French troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year, a move which would frustrate some officials in Washington, though it would not be a drastic change from President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to withdraw French troops in 2013, a year ahead of the NATO withdrawal deadline (CNN, NYT).

The Afghan Interior Ministry on Monday condemned the Taliban's announcement last week of its annual "spring offensive," saying the Taliban "abuse their religious values" in "declaring war against the Afghan people" (AP). And flash floods in the northern Afghan province of Sari Pul on Monday killed at least 26 people, 21 of whom were attending a wedding party when the floods struck (AFP, AP). One hundred people are still missing.

Speaking at a news conference in New Delhi alongside Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed Pakistan to "do more" to ensure that "its territory is not being used as a launching pad for terrorist attacks anywhere" (Reuters, AP, Dawn). But Lt. Gen. Khalid Rabbani, the commander of Pakistani forces along the border with Afghanistan, told the Associated Press in a recent interview that the United States is scapegoating the Pakistani Army for its own failure to defeat insurgents in Afghanistan (AP). Rabbani also contended that the United States cannot ask Pakistan to take military action against all elements of insurgents in Pakistan while they are seeking dialogue with some of the insurgents just across the border in Afghanistan.

At least 30 people, including 22 Pakistani Taliban fighters, were killed Monday in North Waziristan in helicopter assaults on militant hideouts, and an explosion at an arms market (ET, AFP). And unidentified gunmen assassinated a senior police official in Quetta, Balochistan on Tuesday (ET, AFP, AP).

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday released its 77-page detailed verdict in the contempt of court case against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani (Dawn, ET). At the opening of the second annual "Aman ki Asha" Conference in Lahore on Monday, Gilani expressed Pakistan's desire to increase economic relations with India in order to establish peace between the two countries (Dawn, DT).

In the Taxila region of rural Punjab, locals are trying to revive the ancient sport of stone lifting, in which young men have to pick up 80-400 kilogram (175-880 lb) oval or rectangular stones using only their palms, and without letting the weight touch any other part of their bodies (Dawn). The sport was once a wedding ritual in which a man from the bride's side tossed the stone, and a man from the groom's side had to lift the stone into the air before the wedding could proceed, often delaying the ceremony for days.

-- Jennifer Rowland

Inside scoop: The U.S. government on Thursday released 17 letters written by Osama bin Laden during last years in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, which reveal his concern over the deteriorating public image of al-Qaeda, as well as the civilians killed in attacks by regional al-Qaeda affiliates, and his attempt to remain intimately involved with the activities of his lieutenants around the world (AP, LAT, NYT). CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen detailed on Wednesday his experience inside the bin Laden compound just weeks before Pakistani authorities demolished it; he was the only journalist to gain access to the house in which the al-Qaeda leader lived his final years (CNN).

A suicide bomber struck a Pakistani market close to the Afghan border in Bajaur Agency on Friday, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens more, including four Pakistani security forces and 16 civilians (AP, Tel, NYT, BBC, CNN, ET, Reuters, AJE, The News). The attacker -- described by officials as a teenager -- approached a police checkpoint at the market on foot, and detonated his explosive vest near a group of paramilitary soldiers preparing to head out on patrol; the Tehree-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) later took responsibility.

Pakistan's National Assembly and Senate each passed resolutions on Thursday declaring their support for embattled prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who vowed to stay in his position despite opposition calls for his resignation since he was convicted of contempt of court last week (ET, Dawn, DT). Both the National Assembly and Senate are dominated by members of Gilani's own party, the Pakistan People's Party. Members of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz have announced a boycott of a scheduled parliamentary debate on a March 17 speech by President Asif Ali Zardari until Gilani steps down (ET, Dawn).

Foiled attack

Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), said in a statement Thursday that officers had arrested a Pakistani national driving a truck packed with explosives in eastern Kabul, purportedly preventing a large-scale suicide bombing (AP, AFP). Authorities in the eastern province of Paktia said Thursday that six Taliban fighters were killed and two wounded when the bomb they were building inside of a mosque exploded accidentally.

Officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Switzerland and the United Nations met Thursday at a conference in Geneva, where they endorsed a $1.9 billion plan to resettle and support almost 9 million current and former Afghan refugees, though the officials also acknowledged that the money has not yet been raised (AP).

Afghanistan's budding media is reaching out to the government for support, having seen many colleagues fall victim to threats, beatings, and even murders, often for their coverage of corruption and drug-trafficking amongst government officials (Reuters).

Dog days are over

Pakistani cricketer Muhammad Asif was released from Canterbury Prison in Kent on Thursday, after a grueling 6-month sentence for his involvement in a match-fixing scam (The News). "These six months were difficult," Asif said. "We played football and badminton and used [the] gym regularly...The staff in the Canterbury were very supportive."

-- Jennifer Rowland

On the low: U.S. President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on the one-year anniversary of the U.S. raid against Osama bin Laden, arriving and leaving under the cover of darkness, during which he signed a strategic partnership with the Afghan government pledging U.S. military and economic support for the country for a decade after NATO troops withdraw in 2014 (Reuters, AP, LAT, CNN, Post, NYT,McClatchy, Tel). Striking a different tone, Obama also addressed the American people from Bagram Airbase with the message that the United States will "finish the job," but that costly war is finally winding down, and told U.S. troops that there is "a light on the horizon" after all of their hard work and sacrifice.

Just hours after Obama departed on Wednesday, a suicide bomber detonated a powerful vehicle-borne explosive device at near a compound that houses many Westerners, killing four civilians in a passing car, one security guard, and a student and one other person walking nearby (NYT, AP, Tel, BBC, AFP, Reuters). Some of the insurgents then entered the compound, known as the Green Village, and a firefight with security forces ensued. The Taliban later claimed responsibility for the attack, and said it was in response to Obama's message that the war in Afghanistan is almost over.

The Taliban later announced that their "spring offensive," codenamed al-Farouq, would begin on Thursday, May 3 (AFP).

Financial fury?

A series of bomb blasts targeting banks and ATMs across Pakistan's Sindh Province on Wednesday morning injured at least four people (ET, Dawn). A group calling themselves the Sindhu Desh Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attacks. And a remote-controlled bomb targeting a Frontier Corps (FC) convoy exploded in Kalat, Balochistan on Wednesday, killing one FC official and injuring another (ET).

Opposition politician Nawaz Sharif announced on Wednesday the schedule for a series of rallies that his party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), is organizing to call for Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to step down (ET, The News, Dawn). Gilani was convicted last week of contempt of court for refusing to ask Swiss authorities to reopen a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari. Bonus read: Reza Nasim Jan, "Pakistan's federal felon" (FP).

A new report from the U.S. Department of Defense claims that Pakistan's closure of NATO ground supply routes to Afghanistan has backlogged thousands of tons of equipment, and failure to reopen the routes will "significantly degrade redeployment and retrograde operations in support of the drawdown of coalition forces" (ET, LAT, Reuters).

Afghan strongmen

Bodybuilding has long been a popular activity in Afghanistan, persisting through the war against the former Soviet Union, going on quietly during Taliban rule, and exploding in popularity in recent years (HuffPo). Vice president of the bodybuilding federation Khwaja Mohammad Fardin Abassi encourages more young men to consider the sport because "even when he's wearing a shirt, he will impress the girls."

-- Jennifer Rowland

Editor's note: The editors of the AfPak Channel are proud to announce the release on Tuesday of a new book by Peter Bergen, Manhunt: The 10-Year Search for Bin Laden From 9/11 to Abbottabad, which reveals new details of the decade-long hunt, and the final decision to pursue the al-Qaeda leader deep in Pakistani territory (TIME, Post).

Close call

Two Taliban insurgents made it through at least one American-operated full-body scanner with pistols hidden under the soles of their shoes on Saturday, and almost succeeded in assassinating the governor of Kandahar, Tooryalai Wesa (NYT, AFP, AP,LAT, CNN, AJE). The militants killed two of Governor Wesa's guards and took their weapons, sparking a 30-minute firefight with other security personnel that left both attackers dead. Ten members of the Afghan Local Police force traveling in a pickup truck from a ceremony on Friday were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb (AP,BBC). Children playing outside in the eastern province of Paktika on Monday triggered a buried bomb, which killed two of them and seriously wounded a third (AP).

In a statement sent to the Express Tribune on Saturday, the Afghan Taliban rejected a joint Pakistani-Afghan-American offer to guarantee safe passage to Taliban militants interested in peace talks as an "attempt to divide the militia" (ET). Chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Carl Levin (D-MI) and member Jack Reed (D-RI) left for a visit to Afghanistan this weekend "to get a firsthand look at security and political developments in the region and their impact on America's national security" (AP).

Over a decade after the United States began the war in Afghanistan, the country's capital city still has no official street map, and most streets and houses remain unnamed, unnumbered or unmarked, making police efforts to locate and detain insurgents extremely difficult (Reuters).

A U.S. drone-fired missile killed three suspected militants and wounded two others in a strike on an abandoned school in central Miranshah (NYT, Reuters, AJE, Dawn). It was the first such strike since the Pakistani parliament demanded an end to U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan two weeks ago. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Monday asserting that the strikes "are in total contravention of international law and established norms of interstate relations" (AP, WSJ).

British aid worker Dr. Khalil Ahmed Dale, an employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who was kidnapped four months ago, was found dead in Quetta on Sunday morning (ET/AFP, AJE, Dawn, DT, ET). Local officials said his body bore multiple bullet wounds and signs of torture. Pakistani security officers continued for a fourth day on Monday their assault against violent gangs in Karachi's Lyari neighborhood (ET, AJE, Dawn, DT). At least 20 people have been killed in the last four days, and some residents staged a protest of the security operation on Sunday (ET).

A vehicle packed with explosives was detonated at a bus stand in the Jamrud district of Khyber Agency on Sunday, killing two people and wounding more than a dozen (ET, DT). And at least ten people, including five militants of Lashkar-i-Islam (LI), were killed in clashes between LI fighters and a pro-government militia in the Bara district of Khyber Agency on Sunday (Dawn).

Following Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's conviction last week on contempt of court charges, opposition leaders have repeatedly called on him to step down (ET, AJE, Dawn, Dawn, DT, ). But Gilani is standing firm in his position that the court does not have the authority to remove an elected official from power, and that he was only following the rules of the constitution by refusing to support the reopening of a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said on Friday that the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound a year ago was not a "silver bullet," but it did help to weaken al-Qaeda and make the United States safer (NYT). Meanwhile, a senior official in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) said Friday that his organization deserves credit for providing the CIA in November 2010 with the phone number that would lead to bin Laden's courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, and the knowledge that it had last been detected in Abbottabad (Post). And the Associated Press reported Monday that experts believe al-Qaeda affiliates still pose a significant threat to the United States, despite the U.S. capture or killing of most senior al-Qaeda Central figures (AP).  

In an encouraging effort to improve trade ties between India and Pakistan, Indian firms Mittal Energy Investments and Hindustan Petroleum inaugurated a $4 billion refinery on Saturday near the northern border with Pakistan (Bloomberg, Reuters). Chairman of Hindustan Petroleum Roy Choudhury said at the inauguration ceremony that Indian officials have held talks about exporting fuel to Pakistan, while Pakistan said last month it would remove gasoline from a list of banned Indian imports.

The right questions

Two months after the Afghan Taliban launched an interactive Q&A section on their official website, spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid has received a flood of questions on subjects ranging from of suicide bombings to girls' education to cricket (BBC). Though many inquirers appeared to be Taliban supporters looking for ways to help the insurgent group, others like Haseeb ur-Rehman posed boldly piercing questions: "Don't you think that killing all these people in suicide and bomb attacks every day is a big sin?"

-- Jennifer Rowland

Guilty as charged: Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday found Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani guilty of contempt of court for refusing the court's order to request Swiss officials reopen a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari, but sentenced him to just a few minutes of symbolic detention in the courtroom (ET, NYT, Post, Guardian, Tel, Dawn, LAT, AP, Reuters). Gilani could still be removed from office in the coming months for being convicted of a crime, though his lawyer has vowed to appeal the verdict.

Violent protests erupted in Karachi on Thursday following the announcement of the verdict against Prime Minister Gilani and the killing of a local Pakistan People's Party member (ET, The News). Meanwhile, Prime Minster Gilani's son Ali Musa Gilani appeared before Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) officers, and denied his involvement in the illegal import and processing for street use of the drug ephedrine (Dawn).

The U.S. Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday night for talks with officials there aimed at re-setting the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, and discussing concerns raised in the Pakistani parliament's review of bilateral ties with the United States (AP, Dawn, ET/AFP, Reuters). Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told Reuters in an interview Wednesday that the country's military, traditionally a very powerful establishment, now has less influence on Pakistani foreign policy (Reuters). Khar also reiterated Pakistan's stance on U.S. drone strikes, saying "on drones, the language is clear: a clear cessation of drone strikes" (Reuters).

Officials in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province on Wednesday ordered all illegal Afghan immigrants to leave the country by May 25, or face imprisonment and deportation (ET, Dawn, The News).  

The deputy governor of the northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan said Thursday that Taliban militants had stormed a police post along a key highway on Wednesday night, killing four officers and abducting 16 (AP, AFP).

In an effort to stop radical clerics from preaching violent or extremist views, the Afghan government is implementing a "three strikes and you're out" rule, which gives the mullahs three chances to change their rhetoric before they are dismissed and potentially sentenced to jail time (Reuters). However, the law can only be implemented at registered mosques, of which there are only 6,000 out of an estimated total of 126,000 across the country. 

An estimated 60,000 four-stroke rickshaws are operating without fare meters in Karachi, frustrating passengers who pay wildly different fares depending on the time of day, and are charged extra to be taken to the city's more dangerous areas (The News). The blame doesn't lie entirely on the rickshaw drivers, who often remove the meters after registering the vehicles, because the government has failed to raise the official fare per kilometer since 2002.

-- Jennifer Rowland

Good forecast: In one of the most positive predictions yet, a senior NATO security official said Monday that the coalition is "very confident" that the Afghan National Security Forces will be ready to handle all security operations in the country by December 2014 (NYT). The assessment comes just over a week after the Taliban launched a complex series of attacks across the country, and amidst growing concern within the Afghan populace that the country's security forces will founder once international troops leave.

The long-term strategic partnership agreement approved by the U.S. and Afghan negotiating teams on Sunday is reportedly more symbolic than it is substantive, designed to send a message to al-Qaeda that the United States will maintain a presence in the region to prevent a resurgence by the group (AP). Important details such as how much funding the U.S. government will give Afghanistan after 2014, or how many U.S. troops will stay in the country, are expected to be worked out over the coming year.

Indicative of the end of the U.S. war in Iraq and drawdown in Afghanistan, the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) will reportedly reorganize its spy operations to put more emphasis on new national security priorities like China and Iran (NYT, Post, LAT). A study of the DIA's work completed last year found that the agency's attention to war zones was adequate, but intelligence on other global threats was lacking.

Pakistan's Supreme Court is expected to deliver a verdict on Thursday in the contempt of court case against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who could be forced to step down and spend six months in prison if convicted of refusing a court order to reopen a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari (AP, ET/AFP, Dawn). However, even in the case of Gilani's resignation, the ruling Pakistan People's Party has a majority in parliament that would allow them to elect a new prime minister.

Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) named 11 more companies in its investigation of an ephedrine quota scandal involving the illegal import and processing of the drug for sale on the black market, in which Prime Minister Gilani's son Ali Musa Gilani has also be implicated (Dawn). The prime minister has rejected the allegations against his son (Dawn, ET, DT).

U.S. President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh engaged in a violent fight in the northern Punjab city of Gunjrunwala on Monday (ET). The actual world leaders were not present of course, but two bulls with the names of the U.S. president and the Indian prime minister painted on their backs fought out the diplomatic battle on a grassy field, with Obama reigning victorious at the end.

-- Jennifer Rowland

Early exit: Afghan president Hamid Karzai suggested Thursday that an "accelerated and full transition of security responsibilities to Afghan forces" would prevent the recurrence of "painful experiences" like the release of images depicting U.S. soldiers posing with dead Afghan insurgents (LAT, CNN).

A U.S. military helicopter crashed in poor weather while responding to a suicide blast in Helmand Province on Thursday, and officials say all four people on board were likely killed (Reuters, AFP, CNN, NYT).

And Afghan security forces' handling of Sunday's coordinated Taliban attacks on Kabul sparked an outpouring of public support for the country's troops, particularly its elite Special Forces, in whom much of the country has placed its hope that Afghanistan will be able to beat back the Taliban after NATO troops leave in 2014 (Guardian).

Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader Hafiz Mohammad Saeed filed a petition with the Lahore High Court on Wednesday requesting that the Pakistani government provide him protection after the United States last week announced a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction (McClatchy, ET).

Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry is expected to visit Pakistan on April 29 to offer a formal apology for NATO's November airstrikes on Pakistani border posts, as well as meet with the country's top civil and military officials, and with opposition politicians and civil society leaders (ET).

Dawn reported Thursday that Pakistan and the United States are discussing ways to have joint ownership over the drone strikes the CIA conducts in the country's tribal regions (Dawn). Analysts believe Sunday's attacks in Afghanistan, which U.S. and Afghan officials blamed on the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network, will strengthen the United States' hand in discussions with Pakistan over drone strikes and NATO ground supply routes through Pakistan (AFP).

The head of Dawn Magazines, Murtaza Razvi, was found murdered in a friend's art studio on Thursday morning, though the perpetrator and motivation behind the murder remain unknown (Dawn, ET, DT). And violence has flared in Karachi this week, claiming at least nine lives on Friday (ET, The News).

Ever controversial Pakistani actress Veena Malik is busier than ever with movie premieres, photo shoots, and television shows, and even a newly begun singing career (ET). But it isn't all fun and games for Malik; she told the Tribune that she's sad that shooting is over for her upcoming film Mumbai 125 Kilometer, and she's "dying to be with [her] family" in Pakistan, but all of her work in India keeps her too busy to visit.

-- Jennifer Rowland

Editor's note: Foreign Policy Magazine has published a new ebook by war correspondent Anna Badkhen entitled Afghanistan by Donkey, which chronicles Badkhen's fascinating year spent embedded with local Afghans, and features an introduction by our own Peter Bergen (FP).

Speeding things up: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Tuesday in a speech in the capital city of Canberra that the country's 1,550 troops could withdraw completely from Afghanistan in 2013, a year ahead of schedule, citing improved security on the ground as well as pointing out that "the peoples of the world's democracies are weary of this war" (NYT, LAT, Reuters, AP, CNN, BBC, AJE). Gillard said the withdrawal could begin as soon as Afghan President Hamid Karzai announces that Afghan forces are capable of taking over security operations in Uruzgan Province, where most Australian troops are stationed, a move he is expected to make this month.

Gillard's remarks came just a day before top defense officials from NATO member states met in Brussels to map out plans to hand over combat operations in Afghanistan, and to support the fragile government and military that will likely emerge after 2014 when all foreign troops are gone (AP, CNN). Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said Wednesday that the Afghan Army has reached its target of 195,000 troops, and is on track to take the lead on combat operations by the end of 2013 (AP). Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has in the past criticized President Barack Obama's setting of timelines for withdrawal from Afghanistan as a signal to the Taliban that they can wait until there are fewer international troops on the ground to launch a more forceful attack on the Afghan government (NYT). Romney has yet to detail his own strategy for Afghanistan, something he is likely finding difficult as he balances the need to differentiate his plans from those of Obama with the growing unpopularity of the war within the American public.

The experience of one NATO member country, Canada, has reportedly caused a drastic change in the relationship the public and government have with the nation's military (WSJ). The Canadian government is now advocating a greater international presence for the historically small military, and regularly praises their sacrifices in battle.

Around 150 Afghan schoolgirls were poisoned on Tuesday in the northern province of Takhar after drinking water likely contaminated by extremists opposed to girls' education, according to local officials (Reuters, CNN, BBC, AFP, CNN).

Osama bin Laden's three widows and nine of his children were expected to be deported from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia around midnight on Tuesday, but bureaucratic delays held up their scheduled departure, according to the family's lawyer (AP, ET/AFP).

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and military chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited the Gayari army base at Siachen glacier to show solidarity with the armed forces, who lost 128 comrades in a massive avalanche on April 7 (ET, Dawn). And Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has reportedly ordered his son to return to Pakistan to face accusations over his involvement in an alleged drug scandal (ET).

Pakistan's Supreme Court decided Wednesday to allow three Hindu women, whose families have alleged they were forced to convert to Islam, to decide on their own which religion they would like to follow (ET, Dawn, The News).

In Paktika Province last week, mid-level Taliban commander Mohammad Ashan walked right up to a police checkpoint holding his own wanted poster, which offered a reward of $100 for his location (Post). A U.S. soldier who arrived to confirm Ashan's identity said the militant leader himself confirmed, "Yes, yes, that's me! Can I get my award now?

-- Jennifer Rowland

Under siege: Militants launched a series of complex, coordinated attacks across Afghanistan on Sunday afternoon, using teams of suicide bombers and gunmen to attack seven diplomatic and government facilities in Kabul (NYT, AP, CNN, WSJ, LAT, Reuters,AFP, Post). The attacks began in central Kabul, where a NATO base and many Western embassies are located, with explosions followed by rocket and small arms attacks. Militants on the other side of town fired small arms and rocket propelled grenades on the Afghan parliament from a nearby building, and some lawmakers joined Afghan security forces defending the area. Almost simultaneously, militants also attacked sites in Paktia, Nangarhar, and Logar Provinces; Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that the attacks had been planned months in advance and were designed to mark the start of the group's spring offensive (Reuters).

Fighting finally ended Monday morning around 18 hours after it began, with at least eight Afghan security forces, three civilians, and 36 militants killed (LAT, NYT, Reuters,CNN, BBC, AP, Post). One militant arrested in Kabul told authorities that the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network was responsible for the attacks, which appeared to have been designed to demonstrate the strength of the insurgency rather than to cause massive bloodshed (AP). Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Monday that the attacks represent an intelligence failure for Afghan forces "and especially for NATO" (AFP, Reuters).

The Afghan government on Saturday appointed Salahuddin Rabbani to replace his late father Burhanuddin Rabbani as the head of the High Peace Council tasked with negotiating a peace deal with the Taliban (AJE, Reuters, BBC, AP). The elder Rabbani was killed last September by a suicide attacker with a bomb hidden in his turban.

The Post's Greg Jaffe reported Saturday on the U.S. Army's struggle to secure Highway 1, Afghanistan's main road and an important link between the capital city of Kabul and the country's second largest city, Kandahar (Post). And the Times' Malia Wollan reported Saturday on the agricultural training U.S. soldiers must now undergo before being deployed to Afghanistan, to teach them about the work and specific crops that as much as 80% of the Afghan population grow to survive (NYT).

Over 100 militants belonging to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan attacked a prison in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, freeing 384 prisoners, at least 20 of whom were described by police as "very dangerous" insurgents (AP, WSJ, CNN, BBC, LAT, AFP, AJE,NYT, Dawn, DT). The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, where the prison is located, sent a preliminary investigation report to the Interior Ministry on Monday, blaming the jailbreak on police and security forces, who were not prepared to respond to such an attack (Dawn, ET, The News). Some 30 prisoners returned to the jail after escaping, and around a dozen were arrested.

U.S. officials said this weekend that the United States is not considering halting drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal regions, after the Pakistani parliament on Thursday unanimously approved a resolution on new ties with the United States that calls for an immediate end to the attacks (AP). The Haqqani Network's supposed responsibility for Sunday's sophisticated attacks in Afghanistan could further exacerbate the tension in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship over what many in the United States see as Pakistan's reluctance to take action against militant groups based on Pakistani territory (AP).

A suspected militant tossed a hand grenade into a school in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing one six-year-old boy and wounding two other children (CNN, ET, ). Unidentified gunmen killed at least eight Shi'a Muslims and a policeman in three separate attacks in Balochistan on Saturday, bringing the two-week death toll in the province to 26 (Dawn). Residents of the provincial capital city of Quetta observed a strike on Monday to protest the recent killings (DT).

Rescue workers have yet to pull anyone, alive or dead, from beneath the 80 feet of snow that trapped 128 soldiers and 11 civilians last Saturday on the remote Siachen Glacier on the northern tip of Kashmir (AP, Reuters). The extreme conditions on the glacier, highlighted by last week's avalanche, are prompting many in Pakistan to question the need to fight with India over this tiny piece of barren land (NYT).

The defense lawyer for Osama bin Laden's three widows and children in custody in Pakistan said on Friday that his clients will be deported to Saudi Arabia his week (AP,Reuters, CNN, Dawn).  The Associated Press published a story Friday on Muhammed Khurshid Khan, one of two-dozen deputy attorneys general in Pakistan, who has dedicated the past two years of his life to volunteering at Sikh shrines in both India and Pakistan in an effort to atone for the killing of Sikhs by Muslim extremists (AP).

The United States Agency for International Development is making significant cuts to the number of aid projects it runs in Pakistan, in an effort to reorganize the billions of dollars the U.S. government gives to fund development efforts in Pakistan and to create fewer but more effective projects (AP). The Pakistani government has implemented an incentive plan to draw investors to the country's Thar coal fields in the hope that tapping Pakistan's large coal reserves will help address its massive energy crisis (Reuters).

As Pakistan's Capital Development Authority (CDA) expands its tourism projects in the Margalla Hills outside Islamabad, the Pakistan Wetlands Program is concerned about the native wild monkeys' increasing consumption of junk food (Dawn). Many visitors have taken to tossing chapattis, naans, and even chocolate onto the hoods of their cars in order to get the best photographs of the monkeys, but the unhealthy diet may encourage the monkeys to stop foraging for their natural, healthy food items.

-- Jennifer Rowland

Shifting timetable: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that he is considering holding presidential elections in 2013, a year earlier than scheduled, in order to avoid holding a national election at the same time that NATO troops will be leaving Afghanistan (AP, Reuters). The announcement came during a visit to Afghanistan by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who said Thursday that the international coalition is on track to withdraw troops by the 2014 deadline, and that he expects Afghan troops to be ready to take the lead security role in the country by mid-2013 (AP).

The head of U.S. Special Operations, Adm. Bill McRaven, is reportedly designing a post-2014 war plan that involves replacing thousands of regular U.S. troops with small teams of Special Forces that would be paired with Afghan Army units to provide instruction, as well as intelligence and communication support (AP). The plan differs from that supported by Vice President Joe Biden, who has suggested U.S. Special Forces be confined largely to fortified bases, from which they can launch strategic operations against suspected terrorists. Meanwhile, a new Washington Post-ABC poll reveals that a majority of Republicans believe the war has not been worth fighting (Post).

Afghanistan has begun training female Special Forces to conduct night raids in an effort to assuage the anger caused by foreign male soldiers raiding the homes of suspected terrorists (Reuters). And McClatchy's Jon Stephenson, who was the first Western reporter to reach the site of the March 11 massacre of 17 civilians in Kandahar Province, writes about the confusion amongst villagers, officials and reporters in the days following the attack (McClatchy).

Reuters reports Thursday on the devastating impact of the Afghan insurgents' increasingly powerful bombs, which have evolved over the years from relatively crude devices using cheap explosive material and nails, to more powerful ones that are made from fertilizer smuggled in from Pakistan (Reuters). Afghan military officials also say the Taliban have begun covering bombs with urine, feces, and blood in an effort to increase the chances of infection in the victims. The Taliban are also reportedly taking special measures to protect this year's poppy harvest -- and their stake in it -- by promising protection to farmers, and attacking the officials who try to destroy the crop (NYT).

The Wall Street Journal's Tom Wright and Matt Murray reported Wednesday that Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said in an interview he is willing to talk to Pakistan about the disputed region of Kashmir if Pakistan shows a willingness to tackle Pakistan-based militants who attack India (WSJ). Mathai expressed concern over the ability of purported militant leader Hafiz Saeed to hold rallies and appear on television, but said he is encouraged by recent moves on Pakistan's part to improve trade ties between the two countries.

The first Pakistani trade fair in India opened Thursday in New Delhi, less than a week after Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari made the first visit to India by a Pakistani head of state since 2005 (Reuters, DT). And Pakistan on Thursday released 26 Indian fishermen who have been held for over two years for fishing in Pakistani waters, as a gesture of goodwill following Zardari's trip to India (Dawn).

Members of the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Islam in Khyber Agency on Thursday publicly executed seven men accused of betraying the group by surrendering to local security forces (ET, DT).

-- Jennifer Rowland

Twin blasts: Two suicide bombings in Afghanistan targeting government facilities on Tuesday killed at least 22 people and wounded two-dozen more (CNN, Reuters, AP, Tel, AFP, WSJ, Post, NYT, AJE). Suicide bombers in an SUV killed 14 people in the first attack on a provincial official's office in western Herat Province, and three suicide attackers on foot killed eight police officers when they attacked the office of a district police chief in southern Helmand Province.

NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobsen told Reuters Tuesday that the coalition has yet to see signs of a Taliban spring offensive like the one last year, which the insurgent group termed "Operation Badr" (Reuters). The traditional summer fighting season is expected to begin in the next few weeks, and NATO forces are bracing for the Taliban's possible stepped-up attacks.

Armed men on a motorcycle opened fire on a shoe shop in Quetta on Monday, killing six Shi'a Muslims and wounding three others in an apparent sectarian attack (AP, ET, Dawn, DT). McClatchy's Tom Hussain reports on the weapons smuggling networks that are purportedly bringing guns stolen from NATO armories in Afghanistan to militant groups in Pakistan, including Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has claimed responsibility for some of Balochistan's worst sectarian attacks (McClatchy).

Rescue efforts continued Tuesday on Siachen Glacier for 135 Pakistanis buried by an avalanche in the contested region of northern Kashmir on Saturday (AFP, ET). The deadly avalanche highlighted what some see as a senseless and expensive dispute between two countries that are wracked by poverty, over an uninhabitable icy mountain (AP).

The Times' Declan Walsh tells the story of Fakhra Younas, the Pakistani woman who committed suicide in Rome last month, 12 years after an acid attack she blames on her ex-husband left her permanently disfigured (NYT).

Attendees of Fashion Pakistan Week's first day got more of a show than they bargained for on Sunday, as ever-provocative model Mathira's top fell down during her first strut (ET). The incident set off a storm of tweets that made Mathira a top trend on Twitter in Pakistan.

-- Jennifer Rowland