US General David Petraeus has taken control of US military operations throughout the Middle East and much of Asia as head of US Central Command.
His responsibilities include Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
At a change-of-command ceremony at Central Command headquarters, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he was “precisely the man we need”.

The Taliban is a Sunni Islamist, predominately Pashtun movement that ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when its leaders were removed from power by Northern Alliance and NATO forces. Following this it regrouped and since 2004 it has made a strong revival as an insurgency movement fighting a protracted guerrilla war against the current government of Afghanistan, allied NATO forces participating in Operation Enduring Freedom, and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). No longer operating only in Afghanistan, it is based in the Frontier Tribal Areas …

MELBOURNE, Australia – An Australian man who spent time at an al-Qaida training camp and met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan was sentenced Wednesday to nine months in prison but freed because of time already served.
Joseph Thomas, a 35-year-old Muslim convert dubbed “Jihad Jack” by the Australian media, last week was found innocent at a retrial of receiving funds from a terrorist group but guilty of falsifying his passport.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan’s government summoned the U.S. ambassador on Wednesday to urge an immediate halt to missile strikes on suspected militant hide-outs near the Afghan border.
Missile strikes have killed at least two senior al-Qaida commanders in Pakistan, putting some pressure on extremist groups accused of planning attacks in Afghanistan — and perhaps terror strikes in the West.

Fighting terrorism necessitates a two-pronged approach: covert action by Special Forces and smart intelligence. Covert action is absolutely central to winning the war on terrorism just as it was the decisive instrument of the Cold War, said a senior U.S. intelligence official. Covert action remains a critical instrument in the war on terror.
And it is thanks to a number of covert operations that the United States, according to a high-ranking Pentagon official, has made headway in the “war on terrorism.”

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – A suspected U.S. missile strike on the house of a Taliban commander inside Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan killed up to 20 people Monday, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
The reported strike occurred in the South Waziristan region, part of Pakistan’s wild border zone that is considered a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.

UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world’s nuclear powers on Friday to take steps to abolish their atomic arsenals and outlined a set of proposals for eliminating all weapons of mass destruction.
The permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — signed the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, under which they pledged to negotiate steps on scrapping their nuclear weapons.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, (UPI) — Suspected drone missile attacks killed eight people in a theology school in a Taliban-stronghold village in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region.
CNN, quoting military sources, reported two missiles were fired from the drone during the Thursday attack in which six others were injured.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) – Pakistan said Saturday that China will help it build two more nuclear power plants, offsetting Pakistani frustration over a recent nuclear deal between archrival India and the United States.
The agreement with China was among 12 accords signed during Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s recent visit to Beijing, said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.