Expand the current assault against the Taliban? Pakistan has made clear that will happen only on its own terms. U.S. officials acknowledge that so far they haven’t won the argument that militants who target America are enemies of Pakistan, too.

The U.S. has offered Pakistan $7.5 billion in nonmilitary aid plus more to help Pakistan go after terrorists. The assistance is intended to help Pakistan speed up its fight not only against internal militants, but also against al-Qaida and Taliban leaders hiding near the border with Afghanistan.

Pakistanis are deeply suspicious of America’s power and motives, making it difficult for their leaders to accede to Washington’s pressure in public, lest they look like U.S. puppets.

U.S. officials say that while Pakistani officials cooperate more in private, there are definite limits. The U.S. wanted Pakistan to move forces deeper into the tribal belt before winter. It didn’t happen, and might not at all.

A senior U.S. diplomat hinted at a separate agreement that would allow the U.S. itself to take on some of the hidden war against Pakistan’s militants.

The helicopter for Supreme Global Service Solutions has been missing since late Tuesday, said NATO spokesman Maj. Steven Coll. A Kabul representative for the Virginia-based company declined to comment and press officers elsewhere could not be immediately reached. Supreme supplies food and logistics services military bases across Afghanistan.

Police and international military forces were searching for the craft in eastern Logar province’s Kharwar district, spokesman Din Mohammad Darwirsh said. He said they did not have any confirmation of a crash and no one had seen any wreckage.

Army commanders should also talk to insurgent leaders with “blood on their hands” in order to hasten the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

The edicts, which are contained in rewritten counter-insurgency guidelines, will be taught to all new army officers. They mark a strategic rethink after three years in which British and Nato forces have failed to defeat the Taleban. The manual is also a recognition that the Army’s previous doctrine for success against insurgents, which was based on the experience in Northern Ireland, is now out of date.

Nepal Maoist chief flies to Singapore

Kathmandu: With just three days to go before the Maoists’ deadline to government for meeting their demands ends, Maoist chief Prachanda suddenly left for Singapore, a visit being seen as politically significant as ailing ex-premier G P Koirala is also there for treatment. Though Prachanda’s aides said his visit is aimed at meeting party sympathisers in Singapore, Prachanda told reporters that he would also meet Koirala. Meanwhile, Nepal Home Minister Bhim Bahadur Rawal has put off his visit to Indi

General Stanley McChrystal said that 50 to 80 per cent of the Taleban would probably stop fighting if they were given jobs and he called for “patience, resolve and time”.

The general is known to have asked for up to 40,000 more troops as part of his recent strategic assessment of the mission.

He said that the campaign had been under-resourced in the past to meet the objectives set by the international community. He added that the coalition of 42 nations serving in Afghanistan had “under-performed” in some areas.

Seven people are reported to have been killed and dozens injured in a bombing in the city of Peshawar.

Two voters who had dipped their index fingers in purple ink — a fraud prevention measure — were attacked in Kandahar province shortly after voting Thursday, said Nader Nadery, the head of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan. Kandahar is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.

Rumors that militants would cut off voters’ ink-stained fingers spread before the vote. A Taliban spokesman had said militants would not carry out such attacks, but the Taliban is a loose organization of individual commanders who could carry out the threat on their own.

Millions of Afghans voted in the country’s second-ever direct presidential election, although Taliban threats and attacks appeared to hold down the turnout, especially in the south where President Hamid Karzai was expected to run strongly among his fellow Pashtuns. At least 26 Afghan civilians and security forces died in dozens of militant attacks.

If results show that more people voted in the north than the south, “then we will have an issue,” Nadery said.

A senior security officer in North West Frontier Province said nine boys were found during raids, while two more had voluntarily surrendered, and a army commander in Swat spoke of more being handed over by their families.

“They have been brainwashed in such a way that they even call their parents infidels,” Bashir Bilour, senior minister in the provincial government, told Reuters.

Bilour said the boys were shown films about oppression of Muslims in the Palestinian Territories and Indian-held Kashmir, and were given purported religious instructions to convince them that they would go to heaven if they killed enemies of Islam.

But the real Hamid Karzai, president of the Islamic republic of Afghanistan and candidate for reelection Aug. 20, is nowhere to be seen.

Since the official campaign began last month, his aides said, more than 50 rallies have been organized by supporters across the country, but he has not yet attended one. Television stations have proposed debates among Karzai and his major rivals, but he has demurred, saying certain conditions need to be established first.