BASRA, Iraq  – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s candidates look set for sweeping victories in provincial polls, a result that could overturn the post-Saddam political order and strengthen the hand of a leader once seen as weak. Although official preliminary results will not be published for days, leaders of rival …

KABUL (Reuters) – A Taliban suicide car bomber hit a convoy of foreign troops on the outskirts of the Afghan capital on Sunday, wounding two Afghan civilians and slightly injuring a French soldier, officials said. The attack took place on Kabul’s western edge near a bridge where Italian troops and …

KABUL  – Afghanistan hit back at Western criticism of official corruption on Sunday, saying some 80 percent of international aid was outside government control so donors should be held to account. As U.S. President Barack Obama makes Afghanistan his foreign policy priority, President Hamid Karzai’s government has come under increased …